Wolf Song Fergusson, Harvey Westerns

First Edition. Arthur E. Bechers dustjacket art. A classic novel of the mountain man in what is now New Mexico. Scarce dustjacketed copy of Fergusson's classic adventure novel of the American Southwest. The University of Nebraska Press edition published in 1981 describes the novel: Harvey Fergusson's Wolf Song has been ranked with Guthrie's The Big Sky and Manfred's Lord Grizzly as a classic novel of the mountain man. One of the foremost historical novelists of the American West, Fergusson depicts the clash of men with nature - and men with men - in a style that Frank Waters calls "simple and profound." Fergusson's immersion in the historical condition of his characters - whether bullying and racist or generous and kind - allows him to describe faithfully the strengths and weaknesses of the men who wandered the wilderness in the last years before civilization destroyed it. He knows these men of the mountains: their way of raising hair, of wolfing meat, of telling tall tales, of taking what they want, of following the blazing trail. In what is now New Mexico a restless Tennessee lad, Sam Lash, grew into manhood among trappers, hunters, Indians, and Spanish-Americans. He was as wild as the worst; orgies of feasting, drinking, women, and fighting followed months spent in killing beaver. Near Fine in Very Good dustjacket, fairly shallow chipping at spine ends, few inch closed tear at top rear panel.