Searchers by Alan le May

[Double Draw Dave, SASS #58960]

Enjoying the Searchers again and got to thinking about the book it's based on. Has anyone read the book by Le May?

[J.J. Helms]

I've had the pleasure of reading the novel and enjoying the movie. All things considered, the movie does a reasonable job following the novel. Both are considered among the best! Hope you have time to read it...

 

J.J.

[Davey Ray, SASS #27608]

I read the book a month or so ago. I enjoyed it. It filled in a lot of details the movie didn't have time to develope and there were a few differences in the story line. The biggest difference was the Duke's character in the book was Amos Edwards and in the movie he was Ethan Edwards. I'd seen the movie numerous times before I read the book, and then I watched it again after I read the book. I enjoyed both...

[Christopher Carson]

A semi-recent edition of Wild West magazine had an interesting article about the historical facts that probably inspired the book.

 

-Chris

[Double Draw Dave, SASS #58960]

Thanks for the recommendations. Looking forward to getting a copy

[Kansas City Jack #9243]

A very, very good film. I think the Duke should have gotten an Oscar for it. It had the hand on the arm tribute to Harry Carey Sr. and had Harry Carey Jr. (Dobie) playing the son of his real life mother

Olive Carey. Olive is who got John Ford his first directing job, so it's claimed. He was working at Universal as a prop man and wanted to direct, so she introduced him to Harry Sr. who let his direct his

next silent film. Things were a little different in those days.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

It's a very good book, as is LeMay's "The Unforgiven", not to be confused with the story of "Unforgiven", the Eastwood movie-- different altogether.

 

There were many incidents of Comanches and countless other tribes capturing white children, and where they were old enough but not too old, adopting them into the tribe. LeMay's The Searchers was based upon such happenings, and no doubt to some degree with the most famous by far involving the Comanches: the abduction of Cynthia Parker as a young girl, of the large Texas clan of the time. She was a Comanche wife for 25 years, and the mother of the famed Quanah Parker, last chief of the Comanches.

 

Quite apart from the tragedy of the abduction itself, 19th century white society had a major problem with the integration of a girl into eventual Indian wife-and-motherhood. This prospect, of course, is what drives Edwards in The Searchers. "Death was better than dishonor" for the girl. If these women were brought back to white society, as many eventually were and as Cynthia Parker was, you can imagine the problems involved in dressing them in crinolines and expecting them to return to that society. The fact of their wife-hood with their Indian husbands, and their Indian children, the society could hardly bear to think of, much less talk directly about.

 

As for the women, most could barely wait to escape back to their tribes, husbands, and children. The interesting thing is that, even though that would be quite legal, they were often prevented from doing so!

 

Can you imagine a life in the Victorian drawing room after 25 years with the Comanches?

 

"The Unforgiven" has many similar elements, but from a different direction, so to speak.

[J.J. Helms]

Great comments RG! Quanah and Cynthia Parker's story is certainly an interesting one...glad you mentioned it!

 

J.J.