The Way West (1949) By A. B. Guthrie, Jr.

In 1950, A B Guthrie won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Way West, the second of the sequential six-volume Big Sky series.  It marked the first critical recognition of the genre of the American western. The book is a historical fiction treatment of the Oregon Trail saga – the seemingly endless route taken by pioneers in wagon trains across the untamed plains and mountains. Their goal was personal, “free-land" and “a new start;” but it was also political, settling what is now the State of Oregon, claimed by England, making it a de-facto part of the United States.

Sequence is important to this fictionalized history. The Lewis & Clark Expedition (1804-1806) was what could be called the “Exploration” phase. The Big Sky, the first & title novel of this book series, which I read and reviewed last December, covered what could be called the “Mountain Men” phase, when settlement of the Indian Territory was still technically forbidden by law – the Mountain Men, few in number, were fur trappers and traders, but not permanent settlers. The Way West covers the “Pioneering” phase, when settlement of parts of the territory had been made legal – if not safe.

 

While I’ll not challenge the credentials of the Pulitzer committee, in my take The Big Sky is the better book. Its huge and unexpected commercial success is what led to The Way West.

In The Way West, a wagon train departs from Independence, Missouri in 1846 and heads out for Oregon, having hired the recently widowed Dick Summers to be their guide. Summers is a veteran mountain man and was a major character in the first book. He had returned to Missouri after deciding he was getting too old to live the mountain man lifestyle.

That date, 1846, should be instructive for history readers. It is the year that an author by the name of Francis Parkman traveled the Oregon Trail as a young man looking for adventure. In 1849, his book The Oregon Trail was published, it is the definitive text on the subject. I haven’t read the Parkman book, but I’m willing to bet that Guthrie did.

One cannot do The Way West justice without mentioning that it was also a (bad but) widely successfully Hollywood movie starring three giants of the western genre: Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum and Richard Widmark.  The movie also was a very young Sally Fields’ first major film role (watch the opening clips with her riding on the back of a wagon – it’s a hoot).  Reading the book, and comparing it to the movie, is also very interesting. One is aware that Hollywood often takes “liberties” with the original book, but in the case of The Way West, these “liberties” can only be characterized as out and out alterations.

Link to the full movie: The Way West

Recommendation:  Same as with The Big Sky, yes, if you are a history or western buff -- I'm the first, not particularly the second.  I'm not sure if I'll read the third novel in the series, but I have no regrets about reading the first two.