Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction 1950.
This is the story of a wagon train headed west on the Oregon Trail in 1846, starting off in Independence, Missouri and headed for the Columbia River and Fort Vancouver in the Oregon Territory. This is story of hardy pioneers, determined to reach their goal, despite hardship, accidents, sickness and death. People do die on the trail, one to fever, one to snakebite and one to premature birth. But the pioneers keep on trucking, looking for the gold at the end of the rainbow. At one point, the wagon train splits apart, as one group decides to head for California as they have heard the trail is easier than the one to Oregon. The pilot of the train, Dick Summers, is an old mountain man, trail wise and eager to get away from civilization and farming and back to his roots. His great wisdom and sound advice are the key to the success of the effort as he guides the pioneers through treacherous river crossings, across burning deserts, and on steep, nearly impassible mountain tracks. It's a pretty good story, engrossing and easy to read.
This novel was made into a movie in 1967 starring Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, Richard Widmark and Sally Field.
A word about the way the native peoples are portrayed in this book. Guthrie doesn't have a much sympathy for the people who will end up being pushed off the land by his doughty settlers. He most often describes them as dirty, smelly, naked, thieving, lousy and shiftless, with their hands out for whatever they can beg or steal from the settlers passing through their country. At one point, one of the characters is describing an Indian cemetery, saying, "You'll never set your eye on more good Injuns than right there," meaning all the dead Indians. I wouldn't call it an even handed or fair portrait but certainly typical of the times in which it was written.
Review by The Pulitzer Project.
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