About BC Books Online
BC Books Online was created for anyone interested in BC-published books, and with librarians especially in mind. We'd like to make it easy for library staff to learn about books from BC publishers - both new releases and backlist titles - so you can inform your patrons and keep your collections up to date.
Our site features print books and ebooks - both new releases and backlist titles - all of which are available to order through regular trade channels. Browse our subject categories to find books of interest or create and export lists by category to cross-reference with your library's current collection.
A quick tip: When reviewing the "Browse by Category" listings, please note that these are based on standardized BISAC Subject Codes supplied by the books' publishers. You will find additional selections, grouped by theme or region, in our "BC Reading Lists."
Description
A diminutive cowboy with a full beard and a Texas drawl stands onstage at Expo 86 in Vancouver telling wild and woolly stories of life in the Chilcotin backcountry. The audience is mesmerized by his poetic ballad of an alcoholic dog that rode on the back of his saddle in Anahim Lake. The performer is Luther Corky Williams.
Originally from Texas, Corky and his wife, Jeanine, moved from Los Angeles to Anahim Lake, BC, to become ranchers. Corky had grown up on a ranch along the Mexican border before heading to LA to work in the film industry. The learning curve was steep for the family as they tried to get used to sixty-below temperatures, keeping watering holes open for the cattle through four feet of river ice, contending with marauding grizzly bears, getting stuck in impossible bog holes, educating children and surviving the hoards of bloodthirsty mosquitoes.
In the West Chilcotin, a country known to be hell on dogs and women, Jeanine says she thrived. “I loved the ranching life,” she says, “but I felt the kids needed a better education.” Eventually Jeanine and the children moved to Williams Lake while Corky stayed at the ranch. After a freak accident at the Anahim Lake Stampede, he was unable to continue life as a rancher, so he decided to return to his previous career onstage and in film. Getting chosen to perform at Expo was the big break he needed. From there he got an agent in Vancouver and landed parts in television shows like CBC’s The Beachcombers and CTV’s Bordertown.
After Corky and Jeanine split up in 1990, Corky moved back to Texas to work in theatre productions with his brother Jaston Williams, and he performed on some of the major stages across the United States.
By 2007, Corky, longing for the wide-open spaces of BC’s Cariboo, moved back to Williams Lake. “After living in Texas for fifteen years, I just got a wild hair up my ass to get up and come back to Canada,” Corky says. Corky became known as one of Western Canada’s most beloved cowboy poets, performing his spoken word stories and poetry across the province.
