I’m reading in draft form my brother’s account of  James A. Murray, a distant uncle of our family. Brother Bill (internal link) is under contract with Mountain Press Publishing Company to write Murray’s biography, with the publication date set in the fall of 2017. Bill has previously written on the radical Murray in Montana Magazine (internal link) and Wild West Magazine.

How best to review a nearly 200 page manuscript? For thematic questions and problems with continuity I think I can judge the document on-screen. It’s easier to move back and forth over dozens of pages. For proofreading, which I am not doing now, I think it’s wise to print the entire work out in double space. All final edits seem best done with hardcopy; there is something about computer monitors that fight against ready comprehension. Now, what is the best way to print enormous documents?

I’ve had good luck lately with Office Depot printing files. You create an account online, upload your document, then pick it up later at their nearest store. (Or take in a thumb drive if you are in a hurry and print it yourself.) While a copy shop is an economical and convenient choice for black and white printing, color remains stubbornly expensive. You’ll pay fifty to sixty cents for any color page, even if that color resides in simple pie charts. I think HP’s new color print program (internal link) remains a better choice if you can live with the quality of an ink jet image.

Jame’s Murray’s first resort was Hunter’s Hot Springs near the northern gateway to Yellowstone Park. The property included the Dakota hotels.