Paul HorganRezensionen

$6. A portrait of. young abraham lincoln.

Biography of the early, mature years of Abraham Lincoln in New Salem, IL.

FROM AMAZON: In honor of the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's first inauguration, the Editors of "The Saturday Evening Post" asked the author to write this essay in biography devoted to Lincoln's formative years as a young citizen of New Salem, Illinois.

A book detailing the influence of the major River valley of the southwest, being generally more acessable than the Colorado. Horgan creates a firm narrative background for students of the narrower questions of the history of the region. There is even some discussion of the imbalance of power between the USA and Mexico in volume two, to be read with some profit by modern Americans. This book is well worth your time, though there is not much in it for the fans of firearms minutiae.

A nice to surprise to find this book in a thrift store with zero prior knowledge of the author and end up with a great reading experience. Too many 'westerns' or at least books set in the west of the frontier are the Louis L'amour or Ralph Compton variety, they may be ok but are a little one-dimensional. I won't throw Elmer Kelton under that bus, too good! But A Distant Trumpet on the other hand is a long book with a fully developed set of interesting and complex characters and is a portrait of a slice of America at that time not likely to be bested. I'm surprised this is not on a list of the best books about the American West, at least the few I checked out. I've read a few that are on such lists and this surpasses most entirely. Will definitely be looking for something else by Paul Horgan, as I learned he was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History (and it shows in this book!). Interestingly, he was also friends with J. Robert Oppenheimer. Those must have been some interesting conversations!

Lovely small book with copious illustrations by Douglas Gorsline on almost every page.

A leisurely, comprehensive, and novelistic history of New Mexico and Texas from the earliest times up to the Mexican revolution. Some of the observations of national character are outdated, but these are obvious and more than made up for by passages of beautiful prose and brilliant storytelling.

This sweeping tale of a post-Civil War American West will either get you addicted or bored. I seem to have landed in the middle spot, seesawing between interest one day and apathy the next day. There is no denying that this is a book of epic proportions, I just never thought the American Southwest was all that intriguing.

This is a trade paper edition, and due to the large size, you might wear down your thumb and pages as you read. All in all, a decent read, but not a book I would peruse again.


Book Season = Summer

This is a long, interesting, but sometimes boring read. The lengthy description of each character makes clear the mid-20th c fiction author did not feel bound by the "show, don't tell" theory that's drilled into today's fiction writers. Having said that, I must also stress that the research and background that went into this novel is exceedingly impressive. The relationship Mr. Horgan establishes between our hero Matthew Hazard and the Indian scout White Horn (Joe Dummy) is outstanding, and its significance carries right through to the last page. The Arizona outpost, Fort Delivery, with its small contingent of troops stationed in an incredibly desolate location where they are forced to be aware of each other every single day, comes magnificently alive to the reader. I could have done with less of Major General Quait but he stayed true to his colorful character throughout. For anyone wishing to understand more of what it was like during the period following the Civil War when the United States accomplished the "taming" of the last of the Apache tribes, I highly recommend A Distant Trumpet.½

A good read and a pleasure to find that such an American man of letters existed as a contemporary to Selden Rodman.

Not up to his Pulizer work but only meets the level of his fiction. JFL

2555 Great River The Rio Grande in North American History Volume Two Mexico and the United States, by Paul Horgan (read 27 Nov 1993) (Pulitzer History prize in 1955) This was a really good book. It covered the time from 1810 to 1954. Most of the time was spent on the Texas struggle for independence, the Mexican War, the time after the war, and the Pancho Villa mess. Really interesting accounts of all these events. The Mexican War is a delight to read about so far as a U.S. partisan is concerned because we always win. All in all, this was an absorbing volume and I'm really glad I read it.½

2554 Great River The Rio Grande in North American History Volume One Indians and Spain, by Paul Horgan (read 25 Nov 1993) This volume goes from the beginning to the independence of Mexico in 1821. The earlier part kind of drug, but the account since the mid-1660's was really quite good--although the author tries too hard to tell a story instead of writing plain history. I believe the second book will be better.

1294. Conquistadors in North American History, by Paul Horgan (3 Oct 1974) When I was first exposed to the joy of history in 4th grade I reveled in the accounts of the feats of Cortez, Pizarro, De Soto, et al. This book made me realize how superficial was the treatment of their exploits in my 4th grade text. Cortez's conquest of Mexico was not nearly as easy as I had imagined. And Coronado's expedition of 1540-1542 is well told of herein. The book further tells of the Spanish settlement in New Mexico, ending with an account of the "last conquistador", Diego Jose de Vargas Zapata Lujan Ponce de Leon y Contreras (what a handle!), who died at Santa Fe on Apr. 8, 1704. This I found an excellent book which I read with much interest and enjoyment.½

1390 Lamy of Santa Fe: His Life and Times, by Paul Horgan (read 1 May 1976) (Pulitzer History prize in 1976) This is a masterful work--not under ecclesiastical sponsorship--but heavy with solid respect for John Baptiste Lamy, born in France 11 Oct 1814, ordained in 1838 in France and arriving in the USA on 21 Aug 1839. He was appointed vicar apostolic of New Mexico in 1850 and on July 29, 1853, was confirmed as bishop of Santa Fe and on 12 Feb 1875 as archbishop. I found this an enthralling biography, and it is no doubt the definitive work. Lamy is the inspiration for Willa Cather's famed novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop, which I read 8 Nov 1946.

1976 Pulitzer Prize for History. It caught my eye this past July while I was in Santa Fe. Fascinating window into the difficult life that was the West in the mid to late 19th century. Horgan takes us from France to Ohio to New Mexico and back many times as we follow Jean Baptiste Lamy and his lifelong friend, Joseph Projectus Machebeuf on their journey from young priests sneaking away in France to Archbishops of Santa Fe and Denver respectively. Horgan painstakingly details the conditions and tribulations these two men encountered as they did their part in bringing education and religion to the American West. Well researched and well written translates into well-read.

interesting, but a tad fulsome for my taste...

I shuffled this book to the bottom of the pile twice before I caved in and read it. It is touted, currently, as a Western, and on the cover of the older editions, it is said to be a love story. Turns out what it is, is a book that I plan to add to my keeper shelf, that shelf of books that ought to get 6 stars minimum, once I get a copy that stays in one piece. The glue on the spine of the 1962 paperback from Crest/Fawcett seems determined to dry out and let go of the pages.

When Abraham Lincoln rolls through town, Matthew Hazard is one very, very determined boy: he’s going to meet Lincoln! He does, of course, and their meeting sets Matthew’s life on a path to the Arizona Territory, via West Point. Hazard’s determination is one of his greatest characteristics. It brings him everything he has in his life, including his wife Laura, whose mother was none too keen on her daughter marrying a man who would drag her to the end of civilization and beyond. Their life is full of the sort of adventure that makes up the best and bravest, and the worst and saddest, in our history.

The first surprise for me was that this really is a love story. And the second was that it isn’t. There are several stories of couples here, and most of them are love stories, but they’re more than that. Who the characters are in their relationships – romantic and otherwise – defines who they are when the chips are down, and the chips are down often out west at that time. Many, many books weave sub-stories in and out, some successfully, some predictably. A Distant Trumpet is far more successful than others. What a wonderful surprise this book turned out to be!

- AnnaLovesBooks

2578 Things As They Are, by Paul Horgan (read 8 Feb 1994) While called fiction this book is surely somewhat autobiographical. It tells of a boy, Richard, from about 1909 to 1917, and it is enthralling at times, and funny, and poignant. No cynicism--really oddly touching. A blurb compares it to Huckleberry Finn, Le Grand Meaulnes, and The Catcher in the Rye--all of which I have read.

This is the Pulitzer Prize winning account of Bishop Lamy's beginnings in a small village in rural central France and his eventual appointment as Archbishop in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Lamy is a compelling and even heroic figure. This is a powerfully written narrative and trumps Willa Cather's fictional account of Lamy in Death Comes to the Archbishop. I recommend reading this book in combination with Horgan's Great River - a comprehensive history of the Rio Grande.

3532. A Distant Trumpet, by Paul Horgan (read 28 Jan 2002) This is a 1960 novel, and is on the Judd Brothers' list of the "best books of the century". It is mostly laid in 1880s Arizona, involving Army men fighting the Apaches. I have read five other books by Horgan, 4 of them non-fiction and all of them much appreciated. This was not as good as those, but still worth reading: it is kind of nice to read fiction where the characters have a conscience.½

This novel depicts the lives of US Cavalry officers and men in the Arizona territory in the late 1880’s, during the final battles with the Apaches. The young protagonist is Matthew Hazard, who receives his first Army cap from President Lincoln when Matthew meets him in a campaign stop. He befirends an Indian scout, and at the end when the scout is sent to Florida with the other Apaches, he quits the Army, despite a Medal of Honor awarded for persuading the Apache chief to surrender. Major Prescott is his commander, and the novel depicts the life at the desolate post. Major General Alexander Upton Quait is the most remarkable character in the book, and his diary forms the last part of the book, depicting the final war on the Apaches. Very absorbing, read in a new anniversary edition about 30 years after its publication.

Boxed set of 2 volumes. Stamped "From the Library of Dr. Michel d'Obrenovic" (GHW - George Hunt Williamson).

Boxed set of 2 volumes. Stamped "From the Library of Dr. Michel d'Obrenovic" (GHW - George Hunt Williamson). Volume 1 signed by author 1957 and bookmarked page 146 with note "70 other set - $275.00"

My copy is a beat up dried out Book Club edition published in 1960 which I found in an antique store in Brunswick, Georgia. As other reviews have pointed out, this is a dense time consuming read but for the reader who is fascinated by the 19th Century history of the American South-west, this is a gem of a read.

Mathew Hazard as a poor boy being raised in Indiana who one day during the Civil War has a chance to meet President Lincoln. Lincoln gives him a soldier's cap and tells him to become a good soldier. Hazard does just that ending up in the army serving in Arizona fighting the last battles of the Apache wars. In fact Hazard with his Apache scout Sergeant White Horn chases the last group of Apache warriors deep into Mexico to ask them to surrender. The trek takes 58 days riding and walking through the most inhospitable terrain facing death from climate, outlaws and Apaches but the two men bring the Indians back to the USA and their confinement in Florida.

Horgan did a huge amount of research to bring to life the social conditions in Washington during the 1860's. He did the same for the life of a US Cavalry trooper and his officers and their wives on a small isolated military post in the Arizona desert. While I was aware of the appalling treatment of the Apache scouts at the end of hostilities, by making it such an important part the novel, he has made a few more readers aware.