The Last Knife

by Annabel Johnson, Edgar Johnson

When Rick’s older brother chose to go to jail rather than be drafted, Rick confronted him angrily: Why did Howard do it? Didn’t he care that he hurt his parents and Rick? Didn’t he know people would say he was a coward? And now he even seemed proud of it! But when Howard left the house, Rick tried desperately to understand why his brother had done such a terrible thing.
  Rick found some of his brother’s anti-war friends, and when they heard Rick’s story, each one answered him, not with arguments or polemics, but with a true story of conscientious objection out of America’s past. Each tale—from the first one, about a young Indian’s defiance of the harsh code of his forefathers, to the dreadful report of the Ludlow, Colorado, mine massacre when government troops shot striking miners and their families—provides a convincing argument that honorable dissent is among the noblest traditions of a free people.
  Annabel and Edgar Johnson, the authors of the highly acclaimed Count Me Gone, The Grizzly and many other books, have written a remarkable account of vital moral dilemmas that are especially pertinent today, and of how our forefathers faced them and dealt with them courageously.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1971

About the author

From the age of twelve, Annabel was dedicated to a future of being an author, so that by the time she was twenty she had begun to see the happenings of her life as material for books to come. Prior to her writing career she worked in publishing houses as a librarian, as a legal secretary, and in other secretarial posts.

In 1955 she and her husband Edgar began their co-authorship by writing historical novels of the old West, traveling the country, visiting the scenes of their stories and delving into their research while living in an eight-foot camping trailer, trying to make ends meet on an author’s meager royalties. They had no home base, except a certain spot in the Mojave Desert in winter, and another site in the National Forest in Wyoming in the summer.

The Johnsons co-authored many popular works of historical and science fiction both for young adults and adults. They began their career together, however, with several novels set in the Old West, intending to bring that period to life for children far removed from the country. They spent several years traveling throughout the western United States, seeking out little known facets of western history, and compiling accounts of old-timers they met, and of their own experiences. As time passed they shifted their focus more toward the present era, in an effort to help their readers come to terms with today's world.

In 1966, with the growing success of their books, they settled in Denver, but after Edgar’s death, Annabel came home to Arizona, to continue her career in the desert setting she has always loved. She bought a lovely home in Leisure World and settled in. With each new novel she wrote her excitement never left her.

Annabell Jones Johnson passed into a new life February 9, 2013.

Reviews

[Edy]

This book is written in a unique way. The juxtiposition of story and plot line add interest and clarity. The reader is not simply told what it is that made one of the characters go to jail; rather, she must discover this as she reads.

(I read this novel in the 70s when I was taking an adolescent lit. class. The critique came from one I did for the class.)

[Rosa]

I wanted to like this book. And I really liked the frame narrative, about Rick meeting his brother's hippie friends. But the stories they told him I found rather dull.