Yellowstone nights

by Herbert Quick

This early works on 'Yellowstone Nights' is a fascinating novel of the period and still an interesting read today. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

345 pages, Hardcover

First published October 9, 2008

About the author

Quick was nearing 40 before he began to seriously write. Prior to his years of authorship, he worked as a farm laborer, teacher, school administrator, lawyer, and politician. All vocations were held within Iowa and with only a few years of formal education.

Quick was born near Steamboat Rock, Iowa. He educated himself through the books he read, and at the age of 16, he received an Iowa teaching certificate from an instructional seminar. After working as principal at the school in Wesley, Iowa, he studied law as an apprentice in Mason City, Iowa. In 1898, he was elected mayor of Sioux City, Iowa. Meanwhile, he had begun to write. His first book, In The Fairyland of America, was published in 1901. Upon becoming the associate editor for LaFollette's magazine of Madison, Wisconsin, Quick made his first and last move from Iowa; he was 47.

His books include American Inland Waterways (1909), Yellowstone Nights (1911), and The Real Trouble with Farmers (1924). His works, both fiction and nonfiction, often reveal his passion for Iowa's land and his interest in Democratic reform.

Reviews

[Lora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, sweet, majestic, and human. A great series of stories told around the campfire. There is a whiff of an underlying theme of anticorporation, or antiriches, it's hard to tell. Could be the author was commenting on robber barons and government corruption. Or maybe he was just commenting on cattle.
Sweeping vistas, really neat perfectly normal characters, and a whole lotta heart. It was a comfort read and I was very, very sad for it to end.

[Janis · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was written after Yellowstone had been a park for less than 50 years. I enjoyed the small parts of the book where they were sight-seeing in Yellowstone. I enjoyed the idea of a different member of the party telling a story every night. But to be honest, I mostly had no idea what those stories were about. With 1911 slang & written out phonetically spelled accents , I usually didn’t know what was being said. Most seemed to have a theme of either cheating the fat-cats or being cheated by them. I seldom understood who came out on top at the end of each story. This book really made me feel stupid & I don’t enjoy that at all.
Please tell me if you think I missed something that would have cleared up these mysteries for me.