GO WEST

Historian and author William Loren Katz gave a talk at the CUNY Graduate Center on “The Black West.” The talk was filled with descriptions of people who, Mr. Katz said, made the West but seldom made it into the history books.

A number of the black pioneers that Mr. Katz described had close relationships with another minority group, American Indians. For example, Jim Beckwourth, a runaway slave who fled St. Louis in 1821, became a Crow chief. Beckwourth was later portrayed in the movie “Tomahawk” by a white actor, Jack Oakie, who had also played “Dictator of Bacteria” Benzino Napaloni, in Charles Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator.”

The theme of law and order punctuated Mr. Katz’s account of blacks in the West. The first man to be shot in Dodge City was black: He was known as “Tex,” Mr. Katz said. Many people know about white outlaws such as Billy the Kid, but Mr. Katz asked how many in the audience had ever heard of Cranford Goldsby, also referred to as “Cherokee Bill,” who was “almost as lethal.” The latter was born to a black military family, and his devoted mother may have smuggled in the gun that he used to escape from jail.

Mr. Katz spoke of Ben Hodges, a cattle rustler who had “fastest tongue in the West.” Hodges attempted to convince the governor of Kansas to name him Chief Livestock Investigator. When he died, his coffin was carried to a maple grove where distinguished elders of the town were buried. Why such a prominent eternal resting place? As one townsman noted, “We want him where they can still keep an eye on him.”

Black women had a role on the frontier as well. Mr. Katz mentioned Mary Fields of Cascade, Mont., who ran a laundry and slugged one customer in the jaw as punishment for nonpayment. Despite her toughness, she was a beloved member of the community – school was even called off on her birthday. How did the details of her legacy survive? Actor Gary Cooper, who grew up in the same town as Fields, related the anecdotes during an interview.

Another black woman of the West to be reckoned with was Cathy Williams, who dressed as a man to enlist in the army. She served for two years before her identity was discovered.

The Busy Bee Club in Arizona arranged for mail-order brides for young black miners in the state. Men with “seniority” got first dibs, Mr. Katz said.

Then there were those who undertook almost Herculean feats: Bob Lemmons tamed wild mustangs; Nat Love attempted to lasso a locomotive, and Bill Pickett, who was of black and Indian heritage, chased bulls on horseback, grabbed their horns, and pulled the bulls to the ground during his performances. Pickett would then bite the lip of the bull and extend his hands to show that he was holding the bull only by his teeth. His assistants included Tom Mix and Will Rogers!

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SPREADING THEIR WINGS

The third annual Wings Worldquest Women of Discovery Awards were presented at the National Arts Club. The awards honor outstanding women explorers. The organization was founded in 1993 by Leila Hadley Luce and Milbry Polk.

The first prize went to Sue Hendrickson, who has dived at ancient wreck sites off the Philippines and Cuba, as well as at the submerged ancient city of Herakleon in Egypt. She also is known for having found the largest Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, which is now parked in the Field Museum of Natural History. It is named Sue in her honor.

The second awardee was Nathalie Cabrol, who studies the frozen rivers and lakes on the surface on Mars, the supposedly dead planet. She is trying to determine whether that was always the case in her work at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institue and the NASA Ames Research Center. She also has led expeditions to Lake Lincancabur, the highest lake in the world, on the border between Chile and Bolivia.

Ms. Cabrol arrived with her husband, planetary geologist Edmond Grin. She said that she was going to teach him to dive so that they can explore the lakes at the top of the volcano together. The two met while studying geomorphology at the Sorbonne. They are collaborating on a book about lakes on Mars.

The Eva Haller award for humanity was presented to Ana Pinto of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. She has changed theories on how extinct cave bears lived, among other accomplishments.

The Leila Hadley Luce Award for Courage went to Sabriye Tenberken, who, although blind, mastered Mongolian, Chinese, and modern and classical Tibetan while at Bonn University. She translated Tibetan into Braille and then established Tibet’s sole school for the blind. Ms. Tenberken rode throughout Tibet on horseback, seeking blind children to bring to her school.

The lifetime achievement award went to photographer Marianne Greenwood, whose work is housed at the Ethnographical Museum in Stockholm and at the Picasso Museum in Antibes.

Those in attendance included the founder of “Save The Oceans,” Doris Gabbe Cadoux; a Wings Worldquest board member, Kimberley Roosenburg, who is conducting environmental research at the American Museum of Natural History, and many others.

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BOOKS AND BRUNCH

James Wood spoke Sunday at the 92nd Street Y on “Comedy and the Modern Novel.” Mr. Wood, whose recent book is called “The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel” (Picador), is currently teaching at Harvard University. The director of the 92nd Street Y’s Unterberg Poetry Center, David Yezzi, introduced the speaker.

Mr. Yezzi recalled that last year, editor and critic Ted Solotaroff spoke about his edition of selected writings of critic Alfred Kazin as part of the same “Biographers and Brunch Series.” An audience member asked Mr. Solotaroff whether any critic writing today had the same authority as Kazin and others of his generation, such as Lionel Trilling, Edmund Wilson, Clement Greenberg, and Delmore Schwartz. Mr. Solotaroff named Mr. Wood.

Mr. Wood opened by saying that although he would be talking about comedy, the audience should not expect lots of laughs. But he did offer an opening joke: A college president is put on the spot when asked if he had read the latest book by one of his star faculty members. The college president responded, “I hope so.”