Under Northern Stars

by William MacLeod Raine

Jeb Taylor was in trouble. He as a fugitive from Texas justice. He was hunted like an animal across the western plains, and now, in the uplands of Montana, he had been shot at an knifed by a girl who thought he was another man. Then a driving blizzard locked Jeb and the girl together in a lonely cabin. When the storm died, search parties would be out after the girl. They would find her, and he would be with her.

The search party did find them. Unfortunately for Jeb Taylor the sheriff was a member of the party. When happened then is a rapid-fire story of a mysterious man, of a fiery girl who couldn't tell hate from love, of dry-gulching in the Montana hills, and of a bare-knuckle fight that plowed up both death and happiness in its wreckage. With swift, irresistable action, a truly great Western writer spins a fascinating tale about a rugged life.

371 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

William MacLeod Raine (June 22, 1871 - July 25, 1954), was a British-born American novelist who wrote fictional adventure stories about the American Old West.

William MacLeod Raine was born in London, the son of William and Jessie Raine. After his mother died, his family migrated from England to Arkansas when Macleod was ten years old, eventually settling on a cattle ranch near the Texas-Arkansas border.

In 1894, after graduating from Oberlin College, Macleod left Arkansas and headed for the western U.S. He became the principal of a school in Seattle while contributing columns to a local newspaper. After leaving Seattle, he moved to Denver, where he worked as a reporter and editorial writer for local periodicals, including the Republican, the Post, and the Rocky Mountain News. At this time he began to publish short stories, eventually becoming a full time free lance fiction writer, and finally finding his literary home in the novel.

His earliest novels were romantic histories taking place in the English countryside. However, after spending some time with the Arizona Rangers, Macleod shifted his literary focus and began to utilize the American West as a setting. The publication of Wyoming in 1908 marks the beginning of his prolific career, during which time he averaged nearly two western novels a year until his death in 1954. In 1920 he was awarded an M.L. degree from the University of Colorado where he had established that school's first journalism course. During the First World War 500,000 copies of one of his books were sent to British soldiers in the trenches. Twenty of his novels have been filmed. Despite his prolificness, he was a slow, careful, conscientious worker, intent on accurate detail, and considered himself a craftsman rather than an artist.

In 1905 Mr. Raine married Jennie P. Langley, who died in 1922. In 1924 he married Florence A Hollingsworth: they had a daughter. Though he traveled a good deal, Denver was considered his home.

William MacLeod Raine died on July 25, 1954 and is buried at Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.

Reviews

[Ronnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In such a waste of bleak space a lone man was a helpless atom.

This seemed almost equal parts western and Harlequin romance. Its 37 short chapters were almost ruined by the subpar chapter 34, "His Pound of Flesh," and the subsequent sort of Scooby-Doo ending, but in all it was entertaining. The earliest Goodreads edition is showing a copyright of 1942, but the yellow-paged hardback I found shows 1932. Language has changed a bit in those 90 years, of course, along with social mores, which is part of what makes reading this all the more fun. Author Raine strikes me as a curious fellow. He seems to know horses and trappings of ranch life, but regularly certain sentences and much of the dialogue that moves this book along are bound to be peculiar in any era. Some standouts, for example:
"It was the smile sarcastic."
"Her imagination envisaged red tragedy."
"There was a substratum of truth in his story."
"A river of woe flowed in her bosom."
"No wonder the drums sounded tumultuous music within him."
"The girl's bosom began to rise and fall fast."
"Probably the next time she read a mushy novel, she would weep over it, Molly decided with a fugitive smile at her surrender."
"All the plans they had made were gone agley."
"By jacks, that would explain it."
"This fellow is a regular cross-word puzzle I can't solve. He is a mighty peculiar proposition any way you look at him."
"If he is a bank robber and a killer and a general bad hombre, he is certainly a new breed of the varmint."
Raine likes the word hombre, always being sure to italicize it. Also the word "insouciance," which he also italicizes, making it seem like that might've been a newish word for an old state. He's also a fan of the phrase "hell or high water," which definitely works on the western front. It all made for, as I say, a mostly fun read, despite a questionable detour or two that made me wonder if this weren't first serialized in a newspaper or magazine back in the day--and despite that egregious chapter 34 and subsequent too-pat ending.

First line:
"The first hours of swift, desperate racing to escape had lengthened into dragging days, the days into racking weeks."

[David Welch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is good light entertainment, with a bit more character development than mots of its kind. it centers around a Jeb Taylor, a fugitive fleeing north after being accused of serious crimes in Texas. After getting caught in a snowstorm with a fiery young woman named Molly, Jeb finds himself caught in the middle of a local range feud, while trying to dodge authorities. The book has all the hallmarks of a western, and the action scenes are fun, and spread out wisely. What probably most stands out is the character development Raine puts into it. Jeb and Molly are fully realized characters, with Jeb being a somewhat cynical version of the traditional cowboy, and Molly being an emotional roller-coster like so many young women are at her age. A sheriff character who forms a short-lived loved triangle also is filled out as a real person, one you could see operating in early 20th century Montana. Even most of the secondary characters have something interesting going on, the only exception being the main villain, who is a bit one note. A fun pulpy read, about the only thing bad I can say is a few middle sections do drag, and seem there only to give the Molly character something to do. Four stars.

[Victoria Grusing · Rating 4 out of 5]

A true old-fashioned cowboy story.
I have the original 1932 edition; but there is no place to enter it.
It was a fun read. There were some words used that are no longer heard, so it was fun looking them up. Hoyden was one.