Undiscovered Country

A.J. Mangum has written about the contemporary North American West for more than 20 years. His work has documented the working lives of the horsemen, artists and craftsmen who define the modern cowboy culture. Written over a four-year period (2010 through 2013), the essays and written portraits comprising Undiscovered Country offer an authentic, unromanticized look inside a way of life much of the world assumes disappeared generations ago. "The West has always been a destination for individualists chasing big ambitions on their own terms," Mangum says. "That hasn't changed. The modern West is still populated with independent spirits seeking one brand or another of freedom, be it creative freedom or the chance to live and work as they please. The real-life drama of the West, first scripted long ago, still plays out against the backdrop of the 21st century."