NONFICTION - Feb. 20, 1994

CHARLES M. RUSSELL, WORD PAINTER: Letters 1887-1926 edited by Brian W. Dippie (Abrams/Amon Carter Museum: $95; 435 pp.) Charles Russell (1864-1926) is the patron saint of letter writers and designers; Nick Bantock’s (and therefore Griffin & Sabine’s) spiritual grandfather. “To have talent,” the painter, sculptor, illustrator and storyteller wrote in 1925, “is no credut to its owner for what man cant help he shuld get nether credut nor blame its not his falt.” From the age of 16, Russell worked as a night wrangler on cattle roundups. Days were spent painting the people and animals of the West, primarily Montana. But the life of the cow puncher, like the trapper before him, was on the wane by 1893, and “Kid Russell” took up art full-time. Between a one-man show in New York in 1911, a full-page story in the New York Times, and a commission for a mural in Montana’s State Capitol, Russell’s fame was cinched. This collection of what Russell called his “paper talk,” illustrated letters, inscriptions and greetings, is complemented by photos of the author and his family. Flipping through these pages gives one new ideas--for colors, journals, handwriting, trips to take, and friends to write to.