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Summary
Summary
It was just a godforsaken mountainside, but no place on earth was richer in silver. For a bustling, enterprising America, this was the great bonanza. The dreamers, the restless, the builders, the vultures -- they were lured by the glittering promise of instant riches and survived the brutal hardships of a mining camp to raise a legendary boom town. But some sought more than wealth. Val Trevallion, a loner haunted by a violent past. Grita Redaway, a radiantly beautiful actress driven by an unfulfilled need. Two fiercely independent spirits, together they rose above the challenges of the Comstock to stake a bold claim on the future. From the Paperback edition.
Summary
It was just a godforsaken mountainside, but no place on earth was richer in silver. For a bustling, enterprising America, this was the great bonanza. The dreamers, the restless, the builders, the vultures--they were lured by the glittering promise of instant riches and survived the brutal hardships of a mining camp to raise a legendary boom town. But some sought more than wealth. Val Trevallion, a loner haunted by a violent past. Grita Redaway, a radiantly beautiful actress driven by an unfulfilled need. Two fiercely independent spirits, together they rose above the challenges of the Comstock to stake a bold claim on the future.
Author Notes
Born in Jamestown, North Dakota on March 22, 1908, Louis L'Amour's adventurous life could have been the subject of one of his novels. Striking out on his own in 1923, at age 15, L'Amour began a peripatetic existence, taking whatever jobs were available, from skinning dead cattle to being a sailor. L'Amour knew early in life that he wanted to be a writer, and the experiences of those years serve as background for some of his later fiction. During the 1930s he published short stories and poetry; his career was interrupted by army service in World War II. After the war, L'Amour began writing for western pulp magazines and wrote several books in the Hopalong Cassidy series using the pseudonym Tex Burns.
His first novel, Westward the Tide (1950), serves as an example of L'Amour's frontier fiction, for it is an action-packed adventure story containing the themes and motifs that he uses throughout his career. His fascination with history and his belief in the inevitability of manifest destiny are clear. Also present and typical of L'Amour's work are the strong, capable, beautiful heroine who is immediately attracted to the equally capable hero; a clear moral split between good and evil; reflections on the Native Americans, whose land and ways of life are being disrupted; and a happy ending. Although his work is somewhat less violent than that of other western writers, L'Amour's novels all contain their fair share of action, usually in the form of gunfights or fistfights.
L'Amour's major contribution to the western genre is his attempt to create, in 40 or more books, the stories of three families whose histories intertwine as the generations advance across the American frontier. The novels of the Irish Chantry, English Sackett, and French Talon families are L'Amour's most ambitious project, and sadly were left unfinished at his death. Although L'Amour did not complete all of the novels, enough of the series exists to demonstrate his vision.
L'Amour's strongest attribute is his ability to tell a compelling story; readers do not mind if the story is similar to one they have read before, for in the telling, L'Amour adds enough small twists of plot and detail to make it worth the reader's while. L'Amour fans also enjoy the bits of information he includes about everything from wilderness survival skills to finding the right person to marry. These lessons give readers the sense that they are getting their money's worth, that there is more to a L'Amour novel than sheer escapism. With over 200 million copies of his books in print worldwide, L'Amour must be counted as one of the most influential writers of westerns in this century. He died from lung cancer on June 10, 1988.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Born in Jamestown, North Dakota on March 22, 1908, Louis L'Amour's adventurous life could have been the subject of one of his novels. Striking out on his own in 1923, at age 15, L'Amour began a peripatetic existence, taking whatever jobs were available, from skinning dead cattle to being a sailor. L'Amour knew early in life that he wanted to be a writer, and the experiences of those years serve as background for some of his later fiction. During the 1930s he published short stories and poetry; his career was interrupted by army service in World War II. After the war, L'Amour began writing for western pulp magazines and wrote several books in the Hopalong Cassidy series using the pseudonym Tex Burns.
His first novel, Westward the Tide (1950), serves as an example of L'Amour's frontier fiction, for it is an action-packed adventure story containing the themes and motifs that he uses throughout his career. His fascination with history and his belief in the inevitability of manifest destiny are clear. Also present and typical of L'Amour's work are the strong, capable, beautiful heroine who is immediately attracted to the equally capable hero; a clear moral split between good and evil; reflections on the Native Americans, whose land and ways of life are being disrupted; and a happy ending. Although his work is somewhat less violent than that of other western writers, L'Amour's novels all contain their fair share of action, usually in the form of gunfights or fistfights.
L'Amour's major contribution to the western genre is his attempt to create, in 40 or more books, the stories of three families whose histories intertwine as the generations advance across the American frontier. The novels of the Irish Chantry, English Sackett, and French Talon families are L'Amour's most ambitious project, and sadly were left unfinished at his death. Although L'Amour did not complete all of the novels, enough of the series exists to demonstrate his vision.
L'Amour's strongest attribute is his ability to tell a compelling story; readers do not mind if the story is similar to one they have read before, for in the telling, L'Amour adds enough small twists of plot and detail to make it worth the reader's while. L'Amour fans also enjoy the bits of information he includes about everything from wilderness survival skills to finding the right person to marry. These lessons give readers the sense that they are getting their money's worth, that there is more to a L'Amour novel than sheer escapism. With over 200 million copies of his books in print worldwide, L'Amour must be counted as one of the most influential writers of westerns in this century. He died from lung cancer on June 10, 1988.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Born in Jamestown, North Dakota on March 22, 1908, Louis L'Amour's adventurous life could have been the subject of one of his novels. Striking out on his own in 1923, at age 15, L'Amour began a peripatetic existence, taking whatever jobs were available, from skinning dead cattle to being a sailor. L'Amour knew early in life that he wanted to be a writer, and the experiences of those years serve as background for some of his later fiction. During the 1930s he published short stories and poetry; his career was interrupted by army service in World War II. After the war, L'Amour began writing for western pulp magazines and wrote several books in the Hopalong Cassidy series using the pseudonym Tex Burns.
His first novel, Westward the Tide (1950), serves as an example of L'Amour's frontier fiction, for it is an action-packed adventure story containing the themes and motifs that he uses throughout his career. His fascination with history and his belief in the inevitability of manifest destiny are clear. Also present and typical of L'Amour's work are the strong, capable, beautiful heroine who is immediately attracted to the equally capable hero; a clear moral split between good and evil; reflections on the Native Americans, whose land and ways of life are being disrupted; and a happy ending. Although his work is somewhat less violent than that of other western writers, L'Amour's novels all contain their fair share of action, usually in the form of gunfights or fistfights.
L'Amour's major contribution to the western genre is his attempt to create, in 40 or more books, the stories of three families whose histories intertwine as the generations advance across the American frontier. The novels of the Irish Chantry, English Sackett, and French Talon families are L'Amour's most ambitious project, and sadly were left unfinished at his death. Although L'Amour did not complete all of the novels, enough of the series exists to demonstrate his vision.
L'Amour's strongest attribute is his ability to tell a compelling story; readers do not mind if the story is similar to one they have read before, for in the telling, L'Amour adds enough small twists of plot and detail to make it worth the reader's while. L'Amour fans also enjoy the bits of information he includes about everything from wilderness survival skills to finding the right person to marry. These lessons give readers the sense that they are getting their money's worth, that there is more to a L'Amour novel than sheer escapism. With over 200 million copies of his books in print worldwide, L'Amour must be counted as one of the most influential writers of westerns in this century. He died from lung cancer on June 10, 1988.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
Though recent publicity may make this L'Amour's best-selling book (his 78th), it's too long and ambitious to show him at his clipped, unsentimental best. The story begins in Cornwall, England, as coal miner Tom Trevallion uproots his small family, sells his house, and retrieves a few doubloons from a sunken ship to finance a move to America and a shot at the California gold rush. But as they are outfitting for the big trek west in Missouri, thieves kill Tom's wife and steal his gold doubloons. And then, when Tom and son Val and little orphan Grita Redaway join a wagon train moving toward the Rockies, the same villains kill Tom, so Val and Grita winter together as orphans in a cabin. Ten years pass: Val is now a top place-miner, all ""rawhide and iron"" and revenge-haunted, a bitter drifter devoted to killing those varmints who slew his folks. He dispatches most of them, but there's still the gang's nameless leader and his sadistic hired sidekick (Ax Clean-Cutter, the fastest gun in the West) to be dealt with. And meanwhile Val is hired to assess silver ore and seams in various mines, which involves him in stock-buying power plays among real historical mining figures. Eventually, after mule-selling action (killing rustlers) and Grita's return from the Continent (she's now an actress and a mine-owner), Val and Grita are trapped in amine by their nameless, lifelong nemesis--who has a way with dynamite. Can miner Val dig their way out? And then outdraw Ax Clean-Cutter? And will he strike it rich? L'Amour's stereotype characters can't really support such a long, saga-like epic; and his hard-working pulp too often seems like L'Amour's Labour's Lost. But fans will find the basic L'Amour style in good working order, while newcomers may hang in there out of curiosity. . . and then, one hopes, turn to his shorter, truer Westerns. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Kirkus Review
Though recent publicity may make this L'Amour's best-selling book (his 78th), it's too long and ambitious to show him at his clipped, unsentimental best. The story begins in Cornwall, England, as coal miner Tom Trevallion uproots his small family, sells his house, and retrieves a few doubloons from a sunken ship to finance a move to America and a shot at the California gold rush. But as they are outfitting for the big trek west in Missouri, thieves kill Tom's wife and steal his gold doubloons. And then, when Tom and son Val and little orphan Grita Redaway join a wagon train moving toward the Rockies, the same villains kill Tom, so Val and Grita winter together as orphans in a cabin. Ten years pass: Val is now a top place-miner, all ""rawhide and iron"" and revenge-haunted, a bitter drifter devoted to killing those varmints who slew his folks. He dispatches most of them, but there's still the gang's nameless leader and his sadistic hired sidekick (Ax Clean-Cutter, the fastest gun in the West) to be dealt with. And meanwhile Val is hired to assess silver ore and seams in various mines, which involves him in stock-buying power plays among real historical mining figures. Eventually, after mule-selling action (killing rustlers) and Grita's return from the Continent (she's now an actress and a mine-owner), Val and Grita are trapped in amine by their nameless, lifelong nemesis--who has a way with dynamite. Can miner Val dig their way out? And then outdraw Ax Clean-Cutter? And will he strike it rich? L'Amour's stereotype characters can't really support such a long, saga-like epic; and his hard-working pulp too often seems like L'Amour's Labour's Lost. But fans will find the basic L'Amour style in good working order, while newcomers may hang in there out of curiosity. . . and then, one hopes, turn to his shorter, truer Westerns. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.