JPS Brown—the Cowboy’s writer
June 1, 2008
If you have not yet met Joe Brown, there is still time. He is one of those local writers who made good. He is known country-wide as J.P.S. Brown (Joseph P. Brown) for his true-to-life stories about ranch life in Arizona and Mexico. He will open your eyes to real life on the Mexican border—both sides of it.
JPS Brown is from this part of the country. Born in Nogales in 1930, he is from old ranching families that have been in Santa Cruz County since the 1850s. His great-great grandfather was William Parker, who traveled through Arizona in 1850 with the 49ers and came back to homestead southeast of Patagonia. Parker Canyon is named for him. On Joe’s mother’s side of the family, his grandfather, A.B. Sorrells, was a horse trader from Arkansas who came to Arizona and homesteaded in Harshaw Canyon. A.B. married Melvina Parker, the daughter of William. The descendents of these families are numerous and include Joe’s grandmother, Maude and her daughter, his mother, Mildred Sorrells. Mildred married Paul Summers who had come to Arizona in 1914 at the age of 12 with a cattle drive. They bought the Rock Corral Ranch near Tubac, but lost it in the Depression. Paul acquired and lost or sold many ranches over the years. Joe was born in 1930.Then his parents divorced and Joe took the name of his step father, Viv Brown. Brown was also a cowboy, so Joe continued to learn his trade in the cattle business. He was raised on the High Lonesome Ranch near Sanders.
Joe’s schooling was somewhat unusual – boarding school in Santa Fe, followed by Notre Dame University. This is where his writing began to flourish. He took a job as a reporter in Holbrook and later El Paso and found that daily writing chore wasn’t to his liking. Not until later, when the muse began to appear and writing became a self-imposed task.
A few years in the Marines followed, and finally Joe was back in the cattle business.
Ranchers along the border must be bilingual in Spanish and English, and Joe is no different. He’s more like a Sonoran, and still more attached to the Mexican tradition, he said. When I told him I was raised with it but couldn’t speak Spanish, he said, “Shame on you.” Fluency in Spanish came easy to Joe, who has spent many years in Mexico, beginning in childhood when his cattle-trading father took him to Sonora. In the late 50s he started buying cattle and horses in Chihuahua, Sonora, Baja and points south. He spent much time in the Sierra Madres, where cowboying takes skill with a horse or mule and also an understanding of the people and their ways. Otherwise, you may find yourself dead. During this time he kept a journal. After several years of this he had a book, which became Jim Kane in 1970. Jim, you see, is mostly Joe. Joe’s experiences and stories he has heard go into the book. He interviewed his aunt and acquired 100 hours of interviews, which went into some of his books. Most of the time, the names are changed, but not always. Other experiences provided material for other books, including The Outfit, which was based on a roundup at Art Linkletter’s Nevada ranch. Joe provided cattle and horses for the movie business in Tucson, including The Three Amigos. He acted in bit parts, as well. Jim Kane was made into the movie Pocket Money, with Paul Newman and Lee Marvin.
Some years after he finished Jim Kane, he wrote The Forests of the Night, which is about a Mexican vaquero and his nemesis, a jaguar. This is “a true and very informative document on Mexico’s Sierra Madre and its hardy people and animals,” according to a review. Hardy is an understatement for the people who inhabit the canyons of the Sierra Madre, ranching and smuggling. For that is a main method of employment. Growing marijuana in inaccessible canyons can be done by anyone with the will to do it, no matter the lack of education or social status, the latter being a major stumbling block to achievement in Mexico. Complications also include the individuals who have made themselves powerful in the drug trade. Joe’s last book, Wolves at our Door, is the beginning of another series on that most politically sensitive subject. It is an eye-opener and should be read by every U.S. citizen. The wolves are the Mexican drug-runners, people-runners, Mafia-like criminal masterminds. They prey on us all—and we don’t have the eyes to see. They prey on their own people as well. Kidnapping, robbing, killing, right on our doorstep and within United States territory, all funded by the drug money that comes from U.S. pockets.
Joe knows well the world of the Sierra Madre, that lies just south of us. It is a beautiful world of rugged mountains and precipitous canyons, with plenty of stories to tell. Joe is the man for that job. Critics say he provides the most realistic picture of cowboy life of any writer. Whether in Mexico or the U.S., vaqueros or cowboys, ganado or cattle, Joe has done the world a favor with his portrayal of this “vanishing way of life.” It is history in the guise of fiction. Anthropologist Bernard Fontana said, “This is far and away the best ethnography of border cowboy culture ever written or ever likely to be written.” Leo Banks interviewed Joe last summer for the Tucson Weekly and he says, “he’s a great writer, probably the best you’ve never heard of.” Joe lived it all, and wrote it, and it is hard to believe he has actually survived his own life. He’s 77 now and is still riding and writing.
Superlatives aside, as a member of the Authors Guild, Joe’s eleven previous books have been reprinted, including his four book Arizona saga: The Blooded Stock, The Horseman, Ladino, and Native Born, based on his family history in Southern Arizona. He has two new books out this year: the autobiographical The World in Pancho’s Eye (his childhood) and Wolves at our Door. Most of his books are available at the Pima County Public Library.
Joe Brown lives with his wife Patsy in Patagonia, and will be the special speaker at the June meeting of La Frontera Corral of the Westerners Intl. in Green Valley. He will sign books too. All are welcome to attend: June 2 at 4 pm at the Casa Esperanza Community Center in Green Valley.
Sources:
Joe’s websites:
http://members.authorsguild.net/jbrown
http://www.jps-brown.com
“Writing about the cowboy way,” by Kathy McCraine, in the Arizona Cattlelog, March 2008.
“J.P.S Brown’s Last Stand,” by Leo Banks, in Tucson Weekly, August 30, 2007. (this can be found in the archives at www.tucsonweekly.com.
Copyright 2008 Mary Kasulaitis
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