For years, Blake Allmendinger amused friends with tales of his mother’s antics — for example, how she chased people off her Colorado ranch with a gun, rousting trespassers, hikers, picnickers and even her own brother.
“My anecdotes made her into this kind of crazy but eccentric and colorful character,” recalled Allmendinger, a veteran English professor at UCLA and specialist in the literature of the American West.