Pillar of Cloud

New York, NY: G.P. Putnam & Sons, 1957 G.P. Putnam & Sons, New York. 1957. Hardcover. Book Club Edition. Book is tight, square, and unmarked. Book Condition: Near Fine; slight bumping to head and tail. DJ: Very Good - ; closed tears at top and bottom of spine; closed tear to upper flap corner; smudging to rear panel. Gray cloth boards and spine with black lettering on the spine. Maps of Kansas Territory as endpapers. 254 pp 8vo.1858, and a journey westward from Whitaker in the Kansas Territory is undertaken by an ill-assorted and ill-prepared handful of men- and one woman- who hope that the promise of a new country will erase the fears and failures of the past. Under the guidance of wagon master Ned Drum are Garvin Cooper, a lawyer- Bob McVey, a Quaker couple, an easterner, and the runaway apprentice Jim Pierce. As the wagon wheels turn west- there is the vigilance against the Indians- although those they meet are peaceable; McVey's mistrust of Drum which mounts to manic violence, and his unprovoked shooting of an old Indian who is harmless and alone; a brush fire spooks their horses and mules; and finally the end of the journey brings further tragedy when Drum takes his own life..... As the bright expectations of a new world give way to the stress of this journey through bare country, the narrative achieves a subdued tension and offers a superior and more substantial type of western. A clean very presentable copy in a Brodart mylar jacket.