| Wildlife and Nature Books Online in Association with Amazon.com |    |
|
|
|
| The Saga of Hugh Glass: Pirate, Pawnee, and Mountain Man | 
| Author: John Myers Myers
Publisher: Bison Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $4.80
You Save: $9.20 (66%)
New (22) from $8.29
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 290992
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 237
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 0803258348
Dewey Decimal Number: 978.020924
EAN: 9780803258341
ASIN: 0803258348
Publication Date: March 1, 1976
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Satisfaction 100% guaranteed!
|
| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 10 | | NEXT » |
 The Wildest Story of the West August 4, 2008
The saga of Hugh Glass must be one of the most exciting pieces of history I ever read. John Myers Myers has done his studies well and he has a very fine and witty language some times almost John Irving-like. The life of Hugh Glass is fantastic. From sailor to forced pirate with Jean Lafitte, to Wolf Pawnee life and then a mountain man. Violent death is his comrade he escapes again and again. The climax is the meeting with a grizzly which almost kills him. The seemingly mortally wounded Glass is cowardly robbed and abandoned by trapper Fitzgerald and ... it is hard to believe ... Jim Bridger. It is very touching when he eventually meets those guys again. Glass is again seriously wounded, this time by an Arikara indian arrow. Again he escapes but in the end ...
Why not rate five stars? Because a history book shold have pictures in it. Of interest: The bear story must be the inspiration to the film "Man of the Wilderness ( 1971 ) starring Richard Harris though the persons names have been altered.
MikBlood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American WestJim Bridger
 Not a novel March 8, 2006
0 out of 18 found this review helpful
When I bought this book, for some reason I thought it was a novel about Hugh Glass. Instead it is a history book. Dull and boring as far as I was concerned. I did not finish reading it. Gave it away.To me it was a waste of money.
 Hugh Glass: Elevated to immortality by a grizzly bear December 8, 2005
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Sometimes all it takes is a single spectacular event to catapult a man into the sphere of immortality. That's what happened to Hugh Glass, thanks to a grizzly bear.
Little is known about Glass's life up to the time he joined William Ashley's first expedition up the Missouri River in 1823. Rumor had it that he was a pirate with Jean Lafite, but it can't be substantiated. After being wounded by the Arikaras in 1823, he went with Andrew Henry's party overland to the Yellowstone River.
It was on this trip that destiny struck. He was attacked and mauled badly by a grizzly bear; two other mountain men, John Fitzgerald and James Bridger, were left with him to tend him in what everyone assumed would be his final hours. But the two men abandoned Glass before his time had come, and Glass held on to life alone. Somehow he crawled 300 miles down the Grand River, living on berries and buffalo carcasses left by wolves, eventually reaching Fort Kiowa on the Missouri.
After recovering from his wounds, Glass set off on a trail of revenge. He ventured to Fort Henry where he suspected Fitzgerald and Bridger to be, only to find the place deserted. More death-defying traipsing resulted until he tracked down Bridger on the Big Horn River; learning that Bridger was only 20 years old, he Glass decided to forgive him. He also learned that Fitzgerald had gone into the army and was beyond his reach. Disappointed in these results, little did he realize that a legend had been born.
During subsequent years Glass trapped throughout the West, being wounded again in an Indian attack near Bear Lake and thereafter became a hunter for Fort Union (ND). Sometime in the winter of 1832-33 he, along with two other men, was killed by Indians on the Yellowstone River.
The accomplishments of other mountain men far outweighed Glass's, but it was his encounter with that grizzly and his incredible survival of the mauling that assured his name would be added to the pantheon of Western heroes. Frederick Manfred wrote a book-length poem based on Glass's feat, but this book by Myers is broader in scope and fuller in detail. There is a long introductory chapter on the legendary aspect of Hugh Glass that places him in the scheme of things. Myers is an excellent writer, but the book contains no footnotes (annotation of some kind would be useful) and no index. Other than that, the book is a Western classic and will be enjoyed by anyone interested in this legendary character or in the fur trade period of the early West. Highly recommended.
A nifty saga... April 26, 2005
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
My previous exposure to John Myers Myers consists of his two works of fiction (Silverlock and The Harp and the Blade), both of which I enjoyed greatly and have treasured. I knew that he'd written historical books like this, but had never run across one. A review on Amazon tipped me off to this book.
Myers has a very peculiar, particular voice which he uses a great deal early in this slim volume (his text settles back into a more mainstream flow as the pages fly by), which is a little odd, but somewhat amusing. He wears his heart on his sleeve and it is quite clear what he thinks of his sources, of the historical characters, and so on. Balanced and nuanced this book ain't!
But then maybe it shouldn't be. Here is a story that just seems too tall a tale, right up there with a certain large lumberjack and his technicolor ox or stretched from the same cloth as Dan'l Boone was in Fess Parker's portrayal, about a man who wouldn't say quit come pirates, bears, or (forgive the era that spawned it) "wild" Indians. Hugh Glass, if you've never heard of him, might have been the greatest of the mountain men.
Myers builds a pretty good case for the man and his adventures having taken place. Here's a hero I hadn't really encountered before and Myers make his legend believable without ruining exploits worthy of campfire retellings. Not too big a book, just right. I recommend it (in spite of Myers's oddities).
A Legend Revived January 16, 2005
25 out of 25 found this review helpful
Mountain man Hugh Glass was a legend to his peers, many of them legends themselves. His fame spread to the East, where his incredible story was told in the newspapers of Philadelphia. His legend entered the lore of Indian tribes as well, where it was still being told many decades after his passing. But with the coming of the 20th century, Hugh's legend faded into obscurity. John Myers Myers' The Saga of Hugh Glass is an excellent attempt to rescue Hugh from the obscurity that he had faded into and restore him to his rightful place among American frontier legends.
The central tale of Hugh's legend is almost too fantastic to be believed. Attacked and mauled to the point of death by a grizzly bear, he was left in the wilderness to die by companions who robbed him of his rifle, knife, tomahawk, flint, and nearly all the tools necessary for survival in the wild. Yet Hugh, though horribly wounded, near death and weaponless, navigated over 300 miles of virgin wilderness back to a frontier outpost. Then, after refitting with weapons and equipment, and before his wounds were fully healed, he set out into the wilderness alone once more to make an incredible solo winter journey to retrieve his precious rifle and take vengeance on the companions who had robbed and abandoned him.
Many historians had discounted this story as balderdash - nothing more than the outlandish boasting of a blowhard's self-aggrandizement. Myers addresses this in the first section of his book, carefully assembling the remaining evidence, and building a powerful case for the veracity of the legend. Before launching into Hugh's story, he has already reasonably established that though fantastic, the story you are about to read is true, not just another tall tale.
John Myers Myers is a favorite author of mine. Though he thoroughly researched his histories, he had nothing of the academic about him when telling a tale. He was a pure folk historian, and his writing style is utterly idiosyncratic, and resembles nothing more than a grizzled old story teller telling tales around the fire. His prose is loaded throughout with colorful phrases - "pickled in print", "throwing lead", and "not a bet on which Lloyds of London would risk a confederate dollar". These are just a small sampling of Myers' unique voice. For ears accustomed to more traditional forms of history, his rambling and folksy style may be off-putting. I, however, find it perfectly suited to his subject matter and a charming and refreshing change of pace from the ordinary.
This book should be of great interest for those who study the period of the mountain men and fur trade. It should be on the bookshelf of anyone who loves tales of great American legends. And it is highly recommended reading for anyone who loves stories of amazing true adventure told well.
Theo Logos
|
|
|
Wildlife, nature and the Environment
Sponsored Links
Learn how to get your own Amazon Book shop | |
|
