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Raw Gold: Western
Western
- GenresWesterns
92 pages, Paperback
First published October 12, 1907
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 14, 2017
Earlier this year I completed a leisurely personal challenge to read all of the B.M. Bower titles available at Project Gutenberg. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across Canadian author Bertrand Sinclair and discovered that he had been married to Bower! Of course I was curious, who wouldn't be after reading this paragraph in his wiki article?
"At age 14 Sinclair ran away to Montana and became a cowboy for the next seven years. In 1903 he left Montana for Seattle and San Francisco, but returned to Montana, living in Great Falls for the next three years. In 1905 he first published stories. Also in 1905, he married author Bertha M. Brown, better known under her pen name (using her first husband's last name): B. M. Bower. Bower, a very prolific novelist, taught him to write "productively" and to employ a formula."
But also according to wiki, Sinclair wrote not just westerns but also novels about various social causes; and he worked in the areas he was concerned with before writing about them. So I know that as research for Big Timber, Sinclair actually worked in the forest. And he spent time as
a commercial fisherman before writing Poor Man's Rock.
Meanwhile, Raw Gold (1908) was his first novel and my way of testing the Sinclair waters. Would I want to read all of his titles the way I did with Bower or would this one be more than enough? Since I am now plotting my general reading plans for 2018 it seemed like a good time to decide. Besides, I needed an R in my spell-out challenge. (Only 5 more letters to go!)
In this book our narrator is an old man remembering the glory days of his past, when buffalo still ran free, men were still men, and the living may not have been easy but was exciting and worthwhile all the same.
"How many of us, I wonder, can look back over the misty, half-forgotten years and not see a few that stand out clear and golden, sharp-cut against the sky-line of memory? Years that we wish we could live again, so that we might revel in every full-blooded hour. For we so seldom get the proper focus on things until we look at them through the clarifying telescope of Time; and then one realizes with a pang that he can't back-track into the past and take his old place in the passing show."
Then we are treated to a story that takes place in Western Canada around 1874 or so, with Mounties out to get their men, a lady in peril, a prairie fire, murders, stolen gold, true friendships, and rainstorms (am I forgetting anything?) until we get to the final paragraph:
"Ah, well, we can't always be young and full of the pure joy of living. One must grow old. And inevitably one looks back with a pang, and sighs for the vanished days. But Time keeps his scythe a-swinging, and we go out—like a snuffed candle. We lived, though, we who frolicked along the forty-ninth parallel when Civilization stood afar and viewed the scene askance; but she came down upon us and took possession fast enough when that wild land was partly tamed, and now few are left of those who knew and loved the old West, its perils, its hardships, its bigness of heart and readiness of hand. Such of us as remain are like the buffalo penned in national parks—a sorry remnant of the days that were."
I tried not to compare Sinclair's style to Bower's but I couldn't help myself. Sinclair is wordier: I had to pay a little more attention to my reading, I couldn't just breathe in the story the way I could with Bower. And for awhile I had trouble getting interested in the characters themselves, they did not seem to live and breath the way the cowboys of the Happy Family did. But I did enjoy the book enough to go ahead and plan on reading Sinclair's other six books at Gutenberg over the next year. Since this was the author's first effort, I will be interested to see how he will find his voice as I mosey along through his books.
"At age 14 Sinclair ran away to Montana and became a cowboy for the next seven years. In 1903 he left Montana for Seattle and San Francisco, but returned to Montana, living in Great Falls for the next three years. In 1905 he first published stories. Also in 1905, he married author Bertha M. Brown, better known under her pen name (using her first husband's last name): B. M. Bower. Bower, a very prolific novelist, taught him to write "productively" and to employ a formula."
But also according to wiki, Sinclair wrote not just westerns but also novels about various social causes; and he worked in the areas he was concerned with before writing about them. So I know that as research for Big Timber, Sinclair actually worked in the forest. And he spent time as
a commercial fisherman before writing Poor Man's Rock.
Meanwhile, Raw Gold (1908) was his first novel and my way of testing the Sinclair waters. Would I want to read all of his titles the way I did with Bower or would this one be more than enough? Since I am now plotting my general reading plans for 2018 it seemed like a good time to decide. Besides, I needed an R in my spell-out challenge. (Only 5 more letters to go!)
In this book our narrator is an old man remembering the glory days of his past, when buffalo still ran free, men were still men, and the living may not have been easy but was exciting and worthwhile all the same.
"How many of us, I wonder, can look back over the misty, half-forgotten years and not see a few that stand out clear and golden, sharp-cut against the sky-line of memory? Years that we wish we could live again, so that we might revel in every full-blooded hour. For we so seldom get the proper focus on things until we look at them through the clarifying telescope of Time; and then one realizes with a pang that he can't back-track into the past and take his old place in the passing show."
Then we are treated to a story that takes place in Western Canada around 1874 or so, with Mounties out to get their men, a lady in peril, a prairie fire, murders, stolen gold, true friendships, and rainstorms (am I forgetting anything?) until we get to the final paragraph:
"Ah, well, we can't always be young and full of the pure joy of living. One must grow old. And inevitably one looks back with a pang, and sighs for the vanished days. But Time keeps his scythe a-swinging, and we go out—like a snuffed candle. We lived, though, we who frolicked along the forty-ninth parallel when Civilization stood afar and viewed the scene askance; but she came down upon us and took possession fast enough when that wild land was partly tamed, and now few are left of those who knew and loved the old West, its perils, its hardships, its bigness of heart and readiness of hand. Such of us as remain are like the buffalo penned in national parks—a sorry remnant of the days that were."
I tried not to compare Sinclair's style to Bower's but I couldn't help myself. Sinclair is wordier: I had to pay a little more attention to my reading, I couldn't just breathe in the story the way I could with Bower. And for awhile I had trouble getting interested in the characters themselves, they did not seem to live and breath the way the cowboys of the Happy Family did. But I did enjoy the book enough to go ahead and plan on reading Sinclair's other six books at Gutenberg over the next year. Since this was the author's first effort, I will be interested to see how he will find his voice as I mosey along through his books.
February 9, 2026
This is a good old-fashioned western that takes place in Canada and features Mounties from Fort Walsh and their friends chasing down some bad hombres who stole a shipment of gold. Wonderful descriptions of the landscape, complete with prairie fires, lightning storms, and roving buffalo herds, along with plenty of cowboy lingo, made the novel feel authentic to the 1800s. The author was successful in his day and married to another well-known novelist named Bertha Bowers.
November 11, 2016
Masterpiece
Written in the style of the old masters, and comparable to Hemingway, this book was masterful. Each description allows the minds eye to envision with clarity the scene laid forth. The dialogue is that of conversation and not stilted writing. Enjoyed it!
Written in the style of the old masters, and comparable to Hemingway, this book was masterful. Each description allows the minds eye to envision with clarity the scene laid forth. The dialogue is that of conversation and not stilted writing. Enjoyed it!
September 15, 2019
A believable tale!
A believable story!
Compelling characters, credible plot and excellent movement of the story. The prairie fire was a great addition!
A believable story!
Compelling characters, credible plot and excellent movement of the story. The prairie fire was a great addition!
March 24, 2020
a little too predictable .. a good look at the Canadian mounted police ..
May 12, 2015
A cowhand returning from delivering horses to Northwest Territory police meets an old friend, now a Mountie, and is robbed. Subsequently they find a dying miner who tells them the location of a gold cache. Now the mission is find the robbers, recover the money and get the gold for the daughter of the miner’s dead partner. The cowhand and the Mountie accomplish their tasks after a few twists and turns.
The romance aspect could have been amplified.
Sinclair is a wordsmith and I have found his work a pleasure to read. This book is an early work and not a complex story.
My copy is a 1907 hardback which I have had for some time.
The romance aspect could have been amplified.
Sinclair is a wordsmith and I have found his work a pleasure to read. This book is an early work and not a complex story.
My copy is a 1907 hardback which I have had for some time.
November 1, 2019
Great adventure weztern
Kept me reading . One of the better
Western I have read . Will read more from this excellent author.
Kept me reading . One of the better
Western I have read . Will read more from this excellent author.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews