Terry Beers

I read this for the sake of story research, and found it to be a fascinating analysis of literary interpretations of a real event. The Mussel Slough tragedy took place near Grangeville, California, on May 11th 1880. It killed more people than Tombstone's OK Corral gun battle or other civilian confrontations, and while it hasn't acquired that kind of lasting infamy, Mussel Slough was well-known in its day. It was a battle of the mighty Southern Pacific Railroad with its legal and political clout against "the little guy," the Jeffersonian-style farmers who had toiled hard to make the desert a fertile land. For me, Mussel Slough feels personal. The fight took place mere miles from from I grew up, exactly a century before I was born.

Terry Beers cites five principal novels in this work: Frank Norris's The Octopus (which I read a few years ago), William Morrow's Blood Money, Charles Cyril Post's Driven From Sea to Sea, Josiah Royce's The Feud of Oakfield Creek, and May Merrill Miller's First the Blade. Along with those, he brings up the parallel nonfiction from the period from those who witnessed or were close to the event, news bulletins, and poems that it inspired, including work by Ambrose Bierce. Many of the items, fiction and nonfiction, are propaganda: The tycoon railroad barons are evil! The farmers is all that is good and true! Norris and Miller provide more nuanced portrayals; Norri's work is certainly the most famous of the lot, and the one still in print today.

As a writer and researcher, these excerpts were invaluable. They showed the wide range of viewpoints and interpretations and even how writing styles changed dramatically over fifty years. Fiction has a knack for providing every day details that nonfiction leaves out, such as clothing, speech, and seasonal shifts as viewed by pioneers. I'll keep this book on my shelf for sure, as I foresee it will be a handy reference for years to come.… (mehr)