University of Nebraska Books

This is Kihlman's second novel (his first one "Se upp salige" caused a scandal in Swedish-Finnish circles in 1960), and like in the first book he deals with the terrors of a family that is perfect on the outside and quite empty and bored on the inside. The complex themes of this novel might be hard to appreciate for an American audience that wants more straighforward writing and I suggest that anyone who want to know more about the background should check out Henrik Tikkanen's masterpiece "Snobs' Island" (available through zshops). In an interview last year mr. Kihlman proclaimed himself to be a happily married but totally depraved person. Much respected in Finnish literary circles, Kihlman has a very charming humour and is known for downplaying his own literary achievements. Currently he is suffering from writer's block and hasn't published any novel since "The downfall of Bladh" in the middle 80's. Well, he rarely gives interviews either, but when he does, he usually says something very worthwhile on the current state of affairs of our country. This book is considered a classic in Scandinavian litetarure, but I wonder what the Americans will make of it...

The Blue Mother centers around the recollections of two brothers. Man, are these two screwed up fellas! Benno is a mentally ill basket case who's institutionalized for an attempted suicide due to several bizarre homosexual encounters. His brother Raf may be more intelligently aware, but he's a psycological basket-case as well as alcoholic & marital cheat. The book has a soap opera-like theme to it, but Kihlman is a brilliant writer and the novel is hallucinatorily surreal. Here's another amazing writer virtually unknown to American readers & it's a shame. He's a genius.

Beyond the scientific portions of this book, California Grizzly spends a Chapter discussing the role of the grizzly bear as a symbol and emblem of California. It collects facts and pieces of information not readily available elsewhere, like very early images of the California Bear Flag and information about drawings of the California grizzly. Given that its two authors were zoologists, it is impressive that they spent the time and had the interest to establish some of the more humanly significant materials about this animal, and its influence as symbol.

Since the book was first published in 1955, it is pleasant to have a new edition, which makes its information available to a new generation of readers and Californians.

William J. Trinkle----
Director
The Bear Flag Museum

Though the work is forty years old, Storer and Tevis remains a valuable sourcebook for those wishing to understand the full nature of an extinction. It's all here: bear biology, relationships with Indians, relationships with Spaniards, stories of famous California Grizzlies, the ~real~ life and time of Grizzly Adams, and more. Whether you are a biologist, a historian, or just an armchair wildlife enthusiast, you will find California Grizzly a fascinating and necessary book.

In The Cattle Towns, Robert Dykstra demonstrates how five Kansas towns--Dodge City, Ellsworth, Caldwell, Abilene, and Wichita--developed through a complex set of conflicts that bred progress. Instead of adding to the frontier myth of wild and violent cattle towns, Dykstra builds upon studies of urban history and applies them to the developing frontier to create a local, social history that has national relevance.

Success or failure of a town depended on a number of variables including location, promotion, and people. Location as related to the county center, railroad lines, and especially for this study, cattle trails, played major roles in determining town futures. Advertisements in newspapers located between the Kansas cattle towns and the source of the cattle herds in Texas lured the trail drivers north. The most important element in the future of the cattle towns, however, was the local population.

Although the town newspapers often gave the impression that residents of the town and surrounding areas spoke in a unified voice, that was usually not the case. Disagreements between businessmen and rural folk, ranchers and farmers, natives and foreign-born, and reformers and vice practitioners were frequent. Dykstra contradicts earlier studies that claimed successful town development on mutual cooperation and shows how progress was made through such differences.

The differences over town policy provided a forum for area residents to discuss the future vision of their town. Whether the discussion was over alcohol, gambling, prostitution, or the movement of the splenic flu deadline, the result was an exchange of ideas focused on improving the town. Town businessmen, for example, sympathized with the reformers who sought to improve the moral values of the town by eliminating vices, but not at the financial cost of losing the trail drivers who were attracted by such vices and spent their funds liberally throughout town.

Due to the advancement of technology and the progression of settlers into the once open Kansas frontier, the cattle towns shifted their focus from cattle to the more consistent industry of agriculture. The westward movement of settlers altered the routes of cattle drives away from towns like Abilene and Dodge City and railroads continued to expand their coverage, removing these towns from the cattle industry. Despite the moral vices that accompanied it, the cattle industry between 1867 and 1885 helped provide an immediate economic base that developed towns and laid the groundwork for future success.

Utilizing information from period newspapers, letters, maps, government documents, and previous studies, Dykstra creates a well-written study that explores urban aspirations and rivalry in a frontier setting. By examining the motivations of individuals and groups in the cattle towns, Dykstra has made a valuable contribution to town building on the changing frontier.

"One of the most intelligent, interesting, and worthwhile contributions to the field of Western history in some time. [The author] has managed to say something rather basic about American culture in general." -- William H. Goetzmann. "Excellent . . . readable and persuasive. . . . One of the most refreshing and rewarding approaches to be applied to western history topics in many years, for [the author] is asking basic questions about social process and the nature of urban society." -- Howard Roberts Lamar.

Dr. Lawrence Frank's exploration of the social, ethical, psychological, and philosophical diminsions of Dicken's work is utterly delightful and highly readable -- a must for any Dickens affcianado or burgeoning scholar! You'll find a whole new level of meaning to all of Dicken's most endearing characters like Mr. Dick (from David Copperfield) and Master Bates (from Oliver Twist).

Egad! It's a pitiful reflection of the almost savage intellectual torpor that has settled upon academia and our nation as a whole that this fine work is out of print. I suggest you try Amazon's execellent out of print books search and order yourself a copy today!

As far as I am concerned, there was ne'er a book on Dickens penned prior to Mr. Frank's superb treatise. I have never been so proud of Mr. Chas. Dickens, a fellow Brit (and, I might add, a fellow writer)--or of Engerland, my home and native land. A true boon to mankind, Mr. Dickens was, and likewise this blessed text. I weep for joy.

Say the name Max Brand and people generally think Western. But this prolific writer from the pulp era dabbled in many genres, from spy stories to fantasy and even poetry (the work he saw as his true calling).

Brand even created the character of Dr. Jimmy Kildare, featured in over a dozen movies and two television series. The Collected Stories of Max Brand showcases mainly his non-Western work to great effect, including the first Kildare tale, "Internes Can't Take Money" (published in Cosmopolitan of all places in 1936).

Crime fans will likely enjoy this first foray into the medical drama, since it is contains a touch of the noir. Internist Jimmy Kildare gets involved in a Damon Runyon-esque (only without as much humor) cadre of criminal types in a situation that eventually folds in on itself in a manner more than somewhat reminiscent of O. Henry but still very satisfying.

Throughout, as Kildare is patching up various gunshot wounds and the like, he stays true to his calling and never accepts a dime for his work -- until a friend of his desperately needs money. Then he is more than willing to accept the cash.

Though "Internes Can't Take Money" is not a great story, it is highly entertaining and, more importantly, inspired a film the next year (starring Joel McCrea) that eventually gave rise to the series (movie, radio, and TV) that would make the now-surprising idea of a good doctor who is also ethical into a pop-culture icon. The character also made its author a very rich man. And it all started with this story.

To many, the stories of Max Brand embodied the West. However, Max Brand was not his real name; he published under 20 different pseudonyms, and his oeuvre encompassed much more than trail drives, cowboys and Indians. He is the creator of Dr. Kildare and Destry.

Although the task seems insurmountable, the editors selected 18 stories from the nearly 900 penned by the man whose real name was Frederick Schiller Faust. Arranged chronologically, the collection opens with the very early "John Ovington Returns," written in 1918. Slightly autobiographical, Faust had told his young wife that he was about to leave her and their baby daughter to go to war, just as the fictional John Ovington reveals to the woman he loves.

The concluding piece, "The King," was written when Faust hoped to bring his Arthurian legends to the screen. Instead, he was put to work script doctoring or upgrading other people's work. "The King," which was found among Faust's papers after his death concerns illusions, and an aging king of Hollywood actors.

In between these two tales, the reader is treated to the breadth of Faust's fiction, some of which, such as "Our Daily Bread," placed the focus on more current cultural mores and themes.

First published to honor the centennial of Faust's birth, "The Collected Stories of Max Brand" is a richly woven tapestry of one man's literary gifts.

- Gail Cooke

Frederick Manfred is one of the great lost American writers, and "Conquering Horse" is the beginning of the five-novel cycle (the "Buckskin Man" tales) at the core of his achievement. This novel takes place among the Sioux in the early 1800s, before white settlers started appearing in the region Manfred dubbed "Siouxland." Subsequent titles take in the Mountain Man era ("Lord Grizzly"), the horrifying violence of the 1862 Sioux Uprising ("Scarlet Plume"), the havoc wrought by gold miners in the 1870s ("King of Spades"), and the final transformation of the West in the image of Old World values ("Riders of Judgment") with a new century coming into view. Manfred is a superbly evocative writer, and taken as a whole the five novels (which were published out of sequence) create a unified picture of the Old West that is harsh and unsentimental, yet filled with grandeur and extraordinary writing.

I have always been interested in the old west. The various customs of the Native Americans and the ways that the minds of prior generations worked in their own times. I have always had a love of horses and this novel certainly kept my attention. This book is only one of the Buckskin Man Series. They are all excellent. They have an order in which they should be read to be most effective because of the dates. If I can remember the order they are as follows. 1. Conquering Horse. 2. Lord Grizzley 3. Riders of Judgement 4. Jack of Spades 5. Scarlet Plum I was not disappointed in one of these. Frederick Manfred also wrote under the name of Fredrica. I do however, have a few of his books that I do not like. His home was in Minnesota and the area that he writes about in all these novels is the five state area around Minnesota.

As a child (45-50 years ago), I read this book while visiting my Grandmother on the Yakama Indian Reservation. Reading the book again reminded me that cultural stories have a theme and thought pattern to them that includes common sense. In other words, that we now know that Coyote is not the supreme ruler of the animal world does not diminish the lessons that each story contains. A simple, excellent work that will acquaint even the most intellectual person with a world some say no longer exists.

Mourning Dove, (Hu-mis-hu-ma) is the pen name of Christine Quintasket, a member of the Colville Reservation of north central Washington. She had little schooling and even less exposure to literature, however she was determined to be a writer of fiction, particularly in her collections of Native American folk lores. She sought out the aged members of the communities near her home and carefully wrote the stories and legends she heard. Mourning Dove thought it was important to write down these stories, which, up to that time, were mostly oral history, because she feared that each story and tradition would be lost as members moved away from the tribe and into western or white civilizations. While the stories of Coyote, (the coyote represented that irrepressible joker and alternate savior of many tribes) as recorded here, have been "santitized" since Mourning Dove thought they were too "ugly" to write about. Coyote is shown in this book at his best and his worst with special powers to summon help for people when needed. He is earthy and greedy, and filled with gluttony and lust. As a precaution, Coyote was given a kinsman to deter him, a Fox, who was able to restore life. Mourning Dove leaves behind the stories she heard around many a cold evening or near a council fire. This book is edited and illustrated by Heister Dean Guie with notes by L.V. McWhorter (Old Wolf) and a foreword by Chief Standing Bear, Oglala Sioux. First published in 1934, this book harks back to time when Native American civilization still had some of their stories left to tell and is vital to read because of the time period in which it was written. This book is often considered "required reading" in some college classes which are enlightened about the value of Native American stories. Let us hope many more will take the time to review these stories in light of their own stories.

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If you ever wanted to know what month the "moon of the popping trees," or who "the little people of the air" are all about, you only have to start this book. I have read it more times than you can count on five hands and it still moves me everytime. CRAZY HORSE probably paints the picture of exhiliration and despair of the 19th century Lakota(Sioux)and the end of their world as no other book on the subject I've read. (And I've read a lot of them.) When you've dried your tears at the end of this book, you begin to feel a kindred spirit with the Lakota and their struggle to save the world they know, and anger and contempt for the treaties and the word of the United States. Custer fans will be surprised that the so called "Battle of the Little Big Horn" appears with little fanfair in the book, it's almost over before you know it. The fact is, that's how the battle occured: just another skirmish with the soldiers, but one which the Lakota find out later is the turning point in their long struggle with the United States. A great tragedy in the classic sense of the word.

The world needs more people like the man whose life is explored in this book. Taken from interviews with those who knew Crazy Horse in varying degrees, he is consistently shown to be highly principled, ethical, and devoted to the welfare of his people. His example best expresses the difference between a "Leader" and a "manager" or "CEO". All are necessary, be we have lately begun to mis-order their importance, and have begun to choke on our own bitter mediocrity.

"The Cutters", is a book about a family in the earlier 1900's, with 3 boys, one girl, Grandma and Ed and Nell Cutter. Nell Cutter is the mother, and the main character, although her children are sometimes the main characters in other chapters. She always has something to do, as most mothers of four do, and is always on the go. However, that does not mean that she does not have time for her family. Nell realizes in the end that her family means all the world to her, and that mothers should enjoy their children while they still have them at home, because one day, they won't be. This book would be a good read-a-loud for the family, as it has no questionable content, or bad language.

Cutters is one of my favorite "Keep it in perspective" books. I feel I need to read this humorous endearing book every once in a while to remind myself what has value and what does not. Each chapter has Mrs. Cutter dealing with struggles that every mother has, and coming to see how wonderful her life really is! There's the chapter where a new and respected woman comes to town and says "Here's a new and better way to discipline your children." Mrs. Cutter thinks, "Yes, I don't want to be old-fashioned. I must use this new way." Of course, everything falls apart, the children get out of hand, and Mrs. Cutter sees her folly. There's a chapter in which she longs for a newer and better house, deciding to sacrifice everything in order to get one. Or the time she's told the only right way to live is to get rid of all the clutter in the house, even your dearest oldest treasures. Though written long ago, it seems to be right where so many of us live today. The book is cheering, uplifting, and so very enjoyable!

I had the good fortune to meet Dr. Neihardt when I was 15. We had been discussing poetry in my high school literature class, focusing on meaning in the poetry we read. I asked Dr. Neihardt what he considered the most important thing in writing poetry, expecting to hear something about philosophy or emotion or, at least, meaning. "Technique," he answered. As I look at his work I can see what he meant. His magnum opus, A Cycle of the West, is an example of the finest of the writing art. In keeping with his view that poetry is a vocal art and with his background of absorbing Homer in the Greek and Virgil in the Latin as a kid, he titles the five divisions of the work as songs: The Song of Three Friends, The Song of Hugh Glass, The song of Jed Smith, The Song of the Indian Wars, and The Song of the Messiah. Dr. Neihardt adopted a rule to apply throughout his work: the entire work would be in iambic pentameter with rhymed couplets. The entire work, properly termed an epic poem, required faithful daily application for thirty years of his life. On some of those days he could progress only five lines. He described to me how he often had to revise whole hard-won sections he thought he had gotten to be good but on the next day's review, weren't. One should not forget the difficult research Neihardt had to do, too. Travel in the early 1900s was very difficult, and Neihardt covered thousands of miles to get his material for the Cycle. All the advice one reads from Strunk and White, Barzun, and others is reflected in every sentence of the Cycle. Every word does all the work that can be gotten out of it. The reader is placed on scene in every sentence. Scene, description, and summary are subtly blended everywhere. The passage of time is also smoothly handled. Neihardt achieved mood through technique. He would often select dark and bright words as needed. He used every rhetorical tool. One will not find inert material anywhere, either. The extremely few adverbs and adjectives Neihardt allowed into his work are indispensable, and each one is there to take the place of many words. Beyond this, though, the Cycle fulfills its job of allowing for a captivating, smoothly flowing recital aloud. The reader will stumble on no clumsy wording. An example from the end of his Song of the Indian Wars, where Crazy Horse is taken off to be buried by his parents: "And when the morning heard the meadowlark/ The last great Sioux rode silently away./ Before the pony drag on which he lay/ An old man tottered. Bowed above the bier,/A little wrinkled woman kept the rear/ With not a sound and nothing in her eyes./ (white space) Who knows the crumbling summit where he lies/ Alone among the badlands? Kiotes prowl/ About it, and the voices of the owl/ Assume the day-long sorrow of the crows,/ These many grasses and these many snows." Powerful stuff! It's all that good. Little wonder it was selected for inclusion in The Best Books of the World from Homer to Hemingway.

A true mystic's view, inspired by his subconscious, this rhymed couplet volume of five songs shows the process of the take over of the Native American lands. This recital of the facts and details of the westward expansion focuses on five distinct times, commencing with the Ashley-Henry expedition and culminating with the Native American "Ghost Dancers" attempt to return their lands to the people as a whole, rather than to individuals or companies.

Neihardt neither praises nor condemns the expansion itself but shows how it occurred, warts and all. While sympathetic to the Native American cause, Neihardt judges neither the white man nor the Plains folk.

Neihardt praises the beauty of the human form, spirit and tenacity. He sees the beauty underneath the blemishes that are all too obvious. He shows the power of perseverence in his song of Hugh Glass. He shows the love and jealousy of two men in the shooting of the cup. He shows the Native American subjugation through religion as no other writer could.

His simple rhyming couplets that extend for five full length books, reveal the mystical relationship Neihardt had not only with Native Americans but also with the Earth and all of her denizens.

From his early days as a Kansas farm boy to his later years as a professor of literature, Neihardt has sustained this objective but sympathetic view from the Native American's eyes.

Only John Gneisenau Neihardt could hear the songs from the Wind, the Earth, the Moon, the Sun, the Spirits of the Fathers and Grandfathers that went before and then place them on paper, for those who cared to listen, to hear them.

This compendium of information, data, insight and welt geist is not only accurate in detail but is also related in a gracious flowing poetry that, while beautiful on the page, also sings on the lips of the intuitive aloud reader.