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The Long Rifle
Stewart Edward White's tale is the fictional story of young Andy Burnett, inheritor of Daniel Boone's own longrifle. As powerful and moving today as it was when written in the 1930s, it is the timeless story of maturing youth set against the backdrop of the majestic Rocky Mountains in the early 19th century fur trade era. Recalls a time of endlessly expanding horizons, of oneness with nature and of refreshing innocence.
375 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1930
About the author
Stewart Edward White
600 books27 followersFrom about 1900 until about 1922, he wrote fiction and non-fiction about adventure and travel, with an emphasis on natural history and outdoor living. Starting in 1922, he and his wife Elizabeth "Betty" Grant White wrote numerous books they claimed were received through channelling with spirits. They also wrote of their travels around the state of California. White died in Hillsborough, California.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 28, 2020
Read a Reader's Digest condensed version of this. Not bad ... I have a bit more to say about it in my review of "The Best of the West" Volume One.
August 13, 2011
(This review is a copy of what I posted on Amazon back in '04)
Stewart Edward White was many things- lumberjack, cowboy, novelist, biographer, even a writer of a psychic phenomenon series,and though this is the first book of his that I have had the immense pleasure of reading, I must say that after reading the Long Rifle, I believe that this, out of his almost sixty books, was the one he enjoyed writing the most. I think most writers have a favorite that they have written, because it is the one that they have put the most of themselves into, yearning to almost be the imagined character themselves, or to live in the world that lives in their mind. I would not be surprised if the life of a mountain or frointiersman is the kind of life that White would have loved to have led.
There are a number of reasons that I can find for saying this. First, with his vivid, sweeping, almost panoramic descriptions, you are thrown into the true *wild* west, long before it became the wild west of the cowboy days and the countless novels of the *western* genre. The only peoples that you would be fortunate enough to see (or unfortunate as the case often was) was lots of Indians, the rare Spanish settelment, or the even rarer fellow Mountain Man. The mountains and the valleys are written as if White were sitting there with them right in his view. Perfect. Breathtaking. Untouched. Majestic. So full of wildlife that, in the words of Joe Crane, *You needn't hardly aim yer rifle, and you've downed yer dinner*. This is the land that is so beautifully described.
Second, in this age where it is culturally acceptable (at least in most of the western countries) to be a New Age guru or a Catholic monk, Agnostic or Christian, Hindu or practioner of the far-east disciplines, we are at least used to the idea of normal, everyday people being any of these things. But in the 1930's? Spiritualism outside of Christianity was not as accepted by mainstream American culture as it is now. Despite this, White still puts traces of his beliefs (his wife, Betty, channeled mystical teachings, giving him the material for his three psychic phenomena books,) into the character of Andy Burnett. These are written about in a way that can be interpreted as just instinctual reactions, but a careful reading declares them to be more of a spiritual understanding of what is going on around him.
The third can be found in the central figure of this book, the previously mentioned Andy Burnett, the fictional inherator of Daniel Boone's long rifle, giving the book its name. Andy has not been steeped with what our more modern minds think of as *hero* characteristics. He is not superhuman, he doesn't war with himself about what the right thing to do in a situation is. He is not given to heavy drinking, chasing women, (the one time he did try completely scared him out of his wits,) engaging in brawls, or causing commotion; all things that a rather large chunk of the modern heros in movies are found to do. Interestingly enough they are also all things that Andy's fellow mountain men would be ashamed not to take part in, earning him a lofty if somewhat frowned upon image from his companions. No, Andy has more of the character of something that White was very familiar with. A cowboy. Self assured and of strong character, he knows that morals aren't something that you should have to try to live by, but that they should come naturally, with a desire to respect your fellow man. Andy carries this with him everywhere, even in his dealings with Indians. Through his strong love of other people he eventually becomes a member of the Blackfoot tribe, a tribe that no one, Indian or white man has ever been on good terms with. Andy can handle himself in any situation by just being calm and of uncompromising character. These qualities would benefit anyone, and I'm sure that White belived this. In fact I'm also sure that he modelled Andy on what he himself would like to have been. White wrote about him so passionately that I found myself quite often wanting to be in Andy' life.
Now let us move on to the book itself. We begin by reading of a young Daniel Boone (on a side note, while this is a fictional account of Boone, White does have some historical facts on his side, as he should, being the author of the highly acclaimed biography of Boone,) entering a shooting contest with a new kind of rifle that is at first laughed at, as are most new ideas when you're set in your ways, at least until the accuracy of the idea is proven, in this case Boone showing that you can shoot straighter, faster, and cheaper, break all previous records, take first place, then dissapear and become one of the most famous men ever to explore the wild frontier. Narrativelly this is no small feat for the first fifty pages of a book, and you are left wondering how this is going to be topped, carrying a fast paced adventure through three hundred more pages. Then like a plunge into shockingly cold water we are thrown into the boring life of a young teenager about to have destiny come crashing down on him.This is the young Andy Burnett whose grandfather was given that same rifle by Boone as a wedding gift for saving his life. The rifle eventually is passed to the niave Andy who runs away, leaving behind an uncaring step father, and his grandmother, whose last wish was for Andy to escape the farmers life and become the man that he was meant to be, which in her mind is a frontiersman.
Andy is taken under the wings of two genuine mountain men who teach him the ways of the wild. He is quickly thrown into adventure after adventure, as White writes Andy into the real life histories of mountain men. Meeting and traveling with many famous men of the era, he helps discover the first pass over the Contenintal Divide, making a path where the Oregon Trail will eventually ride, helps the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in its begining years by being a good friend of the owners, and also becomes one of the first white men to see the Pacific Ocean from an inland route. Along the way are famine , thirst, hostile Indians, ruthless trappers, and death. But all of this serves to make Andy stronger, culminating in an ending that shows the true misfortune of white mans encroachment upon the wild.
My only problem with the book was that near the end the writing switches back and forth from Andy's life to a more epic, wide-angle lens stlye of writing that shows the sweeping changes being instituted in the land, with years passing by as landscapes and lifestyles change, and then back to an older and wiser Andy, and then back again. But by the end you can see the reasoning as it was needed in order to build up the climax, an immenent tragedy that shows how callous the world is to personal suffering and what motivates people for right or wrong.
In the end we are left with the notion that not only have we lost a national treasure in the eventual taming and destruction of our wilderness, but that an entire lifestyle has been eradicated in the name of progress, and all we have to show is legends of men who could never be equalled.
Yes Mr. White, I too would have loved to have been alive at that time, and I also am aware of what has been lost everytime I take a trek into the majestic Rocky Mountains, following the paths of people just living a simple life surrounded by beauty. Your book is a bittersweet taste of how a man can live his dreams, through good and bad.
Stewart Edward White was many things- lumberjack, cowboy, novelist, biographer, even a writer of a psychic phenomenon series,and though this is the first book of his that I have had the immense pleasure of reading, I must say that after reading the Long Rifle, I believe that this, out of his almost sixty books, was the one he enjoyed writing the most. I think most writers have a favorite that they have written, because it is the one that they have put the most of themselves into, yearning to almost be the imagined character themselves, or to live in the world that lives in their mind. I would not be surprised if the life of a mountain or frointiersman is the kind of life that White would have loved to have led.
There are a number of reasons that I can find for saying this. First, with his vivid, sweeping, almost panoramic descriptions, you are thrown into the true *wild* west, long before it became the wild west of the cowboy days and the countless novels of the *western* genre. The only peoples that you would be fortunate enough to see (or unfortunate as the case often was) was lots of Indians, the rare Spanish settelment, or the even rarer fellow Mountain Man. The mountains and the valleys are written as if White were sitting there with them right in his view. Perfect. Breathtaking. Untouched. Majestic. So full of wildlife that, in the words of Joe Crane, *You needn't hardly aim yer rifle, and you've downed yer dinner*. This is the land that is so beautifully described.
Second, in this age where it is culturally acceptable (at least in most of the western countries) to be a New Age guru or a Catholic monk, Agnostic or Christian, Hindu or practioner of the far-east disciplines, we are at least used to the idea of normal, everyday people being any of these things. But in the 1930's? Spiritualism outside of Christianity was not as accepted by mainstream American culture as it is now. Despite this, White still puts traces of his beliefs (his wife, Betty, channeled mystical teachings, giving him the material for his three psychic phenomena books,) into the character of Andy Burnett. These are written about in a way that can be interpreted as just instinctual reactions, but a careful reading declares them to be more of a spiritual understanding of what is going on around him.
The third can be found in the central figure of this book, the previously mentioned Andy Burnett, the fictional inherator of Daniel Boone's long rifle, giving the book its name. Andy has not been steeped with what our more modern minds think of as *hero* characteristics. He is not superhuman, he doesn't war with himself about what the right thing to do in a situation is. He is not given to heavy drinking, chasing women, (the one time he did try completely scared him out of his wits,) engaging in brawls, or causing commotion; all things that a rather large chunk of the modern heros in movies are found to do. Interestingly enough they are also all things that Andy's fellow mountain men would be ashamed not to take part in, earning him a lofty if somewhat frowned upon image from his companions. No, Andy has more of the character of something that White was very familiar with. A cowboy. Self assured and of strong character, he knows that morals aren't something that you should have to try to live by, but that they should come naturally, with a desire to respect your fellow man. Andy carries this with him everywhere, even in his dealings with Indians. Through his strong love of other people he eventually becomes a member of the Blackfoot tribe, a tribe that no one, Indian or white man has ever been on good terms with. Andy can handle himself in any situation by just being calm and of uncompromising character. These qualities would benefit anyone, and I'm sure that White belived this. In fact I'm also sure that he modelled Andy on what he himself would like to have been. White wrote about him so passionately that I found myself quite often wanting to be in Andy' life.
Now let us move on to the book itself. We begin by reading of a young Daniel Boone (on a side note, while this is a fictional account of Boone, White does have some historical facts on his side, as he should, being the author of the highly acclaimed biography of Boone,) entering a shooting contest with a new kind of rifle that is at first laughed at, as are most new ideas when you're set in your ways, at least until the accuracy of the idea is proven, in this case Boone showing that you can shoot straighter, faster, and cheaper, break all previous records, take first place, then dissapear and become one of the most famous men ever to explore the wild frontier. Narrativelly this is no small feat for the first fifty pages of a book, and you are left wondering how this is going to be topped, carrying a fast paced adventure through three hundred more pages. Then like a plunge into shockingly cold water we are thrown into the boring life of a young teenager about to have destiny come crashing down on him.This is the young Andy Burnett whose grandfather was given that same rifle by Boone as a wedding gift for saving his life. The rifle eventually is passed to the niave Andy who runs away, leaving behind an uncaring step father, and his grandmother, whose last wish was for Andy to escape the farmers life and become the man that he was meant to be, which in her mind is a frontiersman.
Andy is taken under the wings of two genuine mountain men who teach him the ways of the wild. He is quickly thrown into adventure after adventure, as White writes Andy into the real life histories of mountain men. Meeting and traveling with many famous men of the era, he helps discover the first pass over the Contenintal Divide, making a path where the Oregon Trail will eventually ride, helps the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in its begining years by being a good friend of the owners, and also becomes one of the first white men to see the Pacific Ocean from an inland route. Along the way are famine , thirst, hostile Indians, ruthless trappers, and death. But all of this serves to make Andy stronger, culminating in an ending that shows the true misfortune of white mans encroachment upon the wild.
My only problem with the book was that near the end the writing switches back and forth from Andy's life to a more epic, wide-angle lens stlye of writing that shows the sweeping changes being instituted in the land, with years passing by as landscapes and lifestyles change, and then back to an older and wiser Andy, and then back again. But by the end you can see the reasoning as it was needed in order to build up the climax, an immenent tragedy that shows how callous the world is to personal suffering and what motivates people for right or wrong.
In the end we are left with the notion that not only have we lost a national treasure in the eventual taming and destruction of our wilderness, but that an entire lifestyle has been eradicated in the name of progress, and all we have to show is legends of men who could never be equalled.
Yes Mr. White, I too would have loved to have been alive at that time, and I also am aware of what has been lost everytime I take a trek into the majestic Rocky Mountains, following the paths of people just living a simple life surrounded by beauty. Your book is a bittersweet taste of how a man can live his dreams, through good and bad.
December 8, 2016
This book was written in 1930 and is a difficult book to find in print. It is not a classic western in the sense of cowboys, gunfights, rustlers and six shooters. It takes place around 1820-1830, fifty years before the cowboy era and documents the move west in the time of Daniel Boone, Jim Bridger and others and for some reason is full of detail about the fur trade which motivated this expansion west. Although a good story, it comes across as an excellent history of the time. It is one of the best fictional summaries of this period of western expansion except perhaps Michener's writings in Centennial.
October 8, 2022
Read this book over 40 yrs ago. and its stayed with me as one of the formative influences of my Youth.
It was adapted and serialized by Walt Disney as "Saga of Andy Burnett". Walt was very picky of what he signed his name to so that will give you an Idea how good this is. It's a
"Streacher" worthy of the "hivernants" who inhabit its depth. The historical details are well researched as well. I've been to Boone's home in MO. and done Living History since 1976 so take my word for the accuracy of the tale or study yourself.
Wouldn't hesitate to recommend as a "Goodread"about history when the west was young and unspoiled.
It was adapted and serialized by Walt Disney as "Saga of Andy Burnett". Walt was very picky of what he signed his name to so that will give you an Idea how good this is. It's a
"Streacher" worthy of the "hivernants" who inhabit its depth. The historical details are well researched as well. I've been to Boone's home in MO. and done Living History since 1976 so take my word for the accuracy of the tale or study yourself.
Wouldn't hesitate to recommend as a "Goodread"about history when the west was young and unspoiled.
August 27, 2023
The Long Rifle follows Andy Burnett on his journey from a farmer boy to a Mountain Man. The story is engaging and Stewart Edward White details a clear picture of the early trapping companies in the American midwest. This book does a fantastic job of describing the mountains, plains, and people that Andy encounters on his travels, and paints vivid imagery of the flora and fauna that Andy sees. The highlight of the book for me was the balance of foreshadowing strategies without diverting attention from the events at-hand. Additionally, the division between the story elements and the historical elements kept this book refreshing to read, it didn't strongly blend fiction and non-fiction which made the setting so much stronger as the story progressed on. I would definitely re-read this book.
August 27, 2019
I really enjoyed this American historical tale about the mountain men of the west. My husband enjoyed it when he was young and shared it recently by reading it aloud to me. Character, story, setting, language - all excellent.
January 5, 2025
An interesting look at the mountain man way of life that is now lost to time. I enjoy the way the author approaches settler and Native American relations, especially with a main character that is sympathetic to their situation.
The ending was rough but overall this is a very satisfying read.
The ending was rough but overall this is a very satisfying read.
January 28, 2026
I am currently reading a well-worn 1932 edition of The Long Rifle. It's a good book even if I did overpay by offering $30 clams. It isn't overpayment in my opinion. Great book about my favorite era of American history. Namely the 8th and early 19th century.
June 19, 2022
Fascinating. Beautiful descriptions. Fascinating history. The ending was too heart-breaking to let it get five stars! I do, very much like Mr. White's writing.
Want to Read
May 3, 2010"The Long Rifle satisfied tens of thousands of readers over a half a century ago when it was first published. Stewart Edward White's tale of young Andy Burnett, inheritor of Daniel Boone's own long rifle, is as powerful and moving today as it was when written in the 1930's. It is the timeless story of maturing youth, backdropped by majestic Rocky Mountains and set in the early nineteenth cnetury fur-trade era."
November 21, 2011
Well-written, interesting picture of colonial frontier life; the outcome was immediately evident, but in spite of knowing exactly how it would finish, I found the pictures fascinating, and the main character compelling in his silent integrity.
January 5, 2013
one of four in a saga starting in 1947 in s. calif , good hist novel
March 26, 2016
It begins and ends with a rifle. With a great mountain man beginning a journey and another ending one. What a great story!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews