Background
Harold Bell Wright moved to Arizona and worked on a cattle ranch to learn
the details of the business. The story is set in the wide Williamson Valley to the
north of Prescott, Arizona. Wright dedicated the book to Mr. George Carter, of
the Pot-Hook-S ranch; Mr. J. H. Stephens; Mr. and Mrs. Joe Contreras; Mr. and
Mrs. J. W.Steward, of the Cross-Triangle home-ranch; Mr. J. W. Cook; Mr. and
Mrs. Herbert N. Cook, and "many other cattlemen and cowboys...." In that same
Acknowledgement he mentions "the wild horse chase about Toohey," and "outlaw
cattle in Granite Basin."
Kathy & Lawrence Lopez, residents of Williamson Valley, sent me
this list of places or events mentioned in the book that can be identified and
visited today, starting in Prescott and traveling North:
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Prescott courthouse- Bucky O'Neill statue
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Granite Mountain
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Granite Basin
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Mint Creek
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Fair Oaks
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Simmons (no longer there)
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Cedar Mesa
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The rodeo -- it still operates
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Skull Valley -west
Today this is one of Wright's most readable books, one of three
that clearly fit into the category of a Western (along with A Son of His Father
and The Mine With the Iron Door). It provided an intimate look at the life of a
cowboy in the early 20th century, and includes plenty of horses, cattle,
rustlers, and guns. By the time this story takes place, Indians have disappeared
and automobiles are common.
Wright continues his attack on Eastern scholars and critics begun in
The Eyes of the World, introducing Professor Parkhill, a famous professor
of aesthetics from a university somewhere in the East. Until he learns the ways
of the West, Parkhill, who clearly represents all of Wright's literary critics,
is useless and comical on the western ranch:
Professor Everard Charles Parkhill looked the part to which,
from his birth, he had been assigned by his over-cultured parents. His slender
body, with its narrow shoulders and sunken chest, frail as it was, seemed almost
too heavy for his feeble legs. His thin face, bloodless and sallow, with a
sparse, daintily trimmed beard and weak watery eyes, was characterized by a
solemn and portentous gravity, as though, realizing fully the profound
importance of his mission in life, he could permit no trivial thought to enter
his bald, domelike head. One knew instinctively that in all the forty-five or
fifty years of his little life no happiness or joy that had not been
scientifically sterilized and certified had ever been permitted to stain his
super-aesthetic soul.
As he came forward, he gazed at the long-limbed man on the big bay horse with a
curious eagerness, as though he were considering a strange and interesting
creature that could scarcely be held to belong to the human race.
"Professor Parkhill," said Phil coolly, "you were saying that you had never seen
a genuine cowboy in his native haunt. Permit me to introduce a typical specimen,
Mr. Honorable Patches. Patches, this is Professor Parkhill."
"Phil," murmured Kitty, "how can you?"
The Professor was gazing at Patches as though fascinated. And Patches, his
weather-beaten face as grave as the face of a wooden Indian, stared back at the
Professor with a blank, open-mouthed and wild-eyed expression of rustic wonder
that convulsed Phil and made Kitty turn away to hide a smile.
"Howdy! Proud to meet up with you, mister," drawled the typical specimen of the
genus cowboy. And then, as though suddenly remembering his manners, he leaped to
the ground and strode awkwardly forward, one hand outstretched in greeting, the
other holding fast to Stranger's bridle rein, while the horse danced and plunged
about with reckless indifference to the polite intentions of his master.
The Professor backed fearfully away from the dangerous looking horse and the
equally formidable-appearing cowboy. (p. 204ff)
While the story is about the conflict between cattle men and
rustler, on a more important level the story is about the conflict between the
values and culture of Eastern cities (or at least a caricature of those values) and the values and culture of Western
ranchers and farmers.
The book includes none of the usual color illustrations, but
many very nice drawing by Harold Bell Wright.
Related Inscription
Wright inscribed the following note in a copy of this title now
owned by Robert Lewis:
| "Dear Aunt Alice - I love this
book and so will you.
Harold - Aug 1919 |
Collecting
All American first editions are by
the Book Supply Company and look exactly like the illustrations above.
The first edition was also available in leather. Hodder and
Stoughton published a British first edition. The book was
reprinted many times by A. L. Burt, Grosset and Dunlop, Appleton, and
International News. Most of the early
reprints carry no indication that they are not first editions.
There are plenty of these book available, though not as
many as his top sellers that preceded it. The dust jackets are
hard to find. You will notice right away that many of the apparent
first editions have an HBW brand inside the front cover with a serial
number. I have no idea why some have it and others don't. I
will just assume they are all first editions, until I learn otherwise.
Also pictured below is a 41-page promotional booklet for When A Man's a
Man. This copy, owned by Dave Hadsell, is the only one I have
encountered. The book measures 5" x 7 1/4". I have
not included this book with the Biographical Pamphlets because it is not
biographical.
Click on Pictures to Enlarge.
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Cover of booklet |
Page near back of booklet |
Inside of cover & title page |
Note for owners of Harold Bell
Wright's Books and Collectibles:
Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1919. United Kingdom
first edition.
Review of Book
by Dr. Joyce Kinkead Copyright
1979 by Joyce Kinkead. Used by
Permission.
Wright's
next southwestern novel, When a Man's a Man (1916), focuses
explicitly on the theme of the Southwest's beneficial effects on a man
physically, intellectually, morally, and spiritually.
Written while Wright was recuperating from tuberculosis in the
seclusion of his Hole-in-the-Mountain Camp near Tucson, the novel
realistically details the management of a range and its cowboys, and
pictures the Arizona terrain where the story is set.
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