Lonesome Dove
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| Author | Larry McMurtry |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Lonesome Dove series |
| Genre(s) | Western |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
| Released | 1985 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 843 p. (hardback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-671-50420-7 (hardback edition) |
| Preceded by | Comanche Moon |
| Followed by | Streets of Laredo |
Lonesome Dove, written by Larry McMurtry, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning western novel and the first published book of the Lonesome Dove series. The story focuses on the relationship of several retired Texas Rangers and their adventures driving a cattle herd from Texas to Montana. It was broadcast on TV as a four-part mini-series. The mini-series was awarded six Emmy Awards and was nominated for 13 others. It spawned a follow-up mini-series as well, Return to Lonesome Dove.
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[edit] Plot summary
Captain Augustus "Gus" McCrae (Robert Duvall) and Captain Woodrow F. Call (Tommy Lee Jones) run a cattle ranch called the Hat Creek Cattle Company out in the small dusty Texas town of Lonesome Dove. Gus is a romantic figure whose happy-go-lucky nature and good fortune with women and prostitutes, especially Lorena Wood (Diane Lane), prohibits him from doing any real work around the farm. Call, however, is a no-nonsense, hard-working taskmaster who tolerates very little, although he reluctantly allows Gus to get away with his laziness throughout the story.
Working with them are Joshua Deets (Danny Glover), a black man who is an excellent tracker and scout from their Ranger days, Pea-Eye Parker (Timothy Scott), another former Ranger who works hard but isn't all too bright, and Bolivar (León Singer), a retired Mexican bandit who is their cook. They adopted Newt Dobbs (Rick Schroder), a boy who may be Call's illegitimate son by a prostitute named Maggie Dobbs after she had died; at the telling of this story, Newt is seventeen.
The story starts after Jake shows up after being gone for more than ten years. He is a man on the run, having accidentally shot the mayor of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Reunited with Gus and Call, Jake's breath-taking description of Montana inspires Call to gather a herd of cattle and drive them there to begin the first cattle ranch in the frontier state. Call is attracted to the romantic notion of seeing one of the last pieces of untamed land before the end of the frontier. Gus is less enthusiastic, pointing out that they are getting old and that they are Rangers and traders, not cowboys. Call prevails and they enlist their crew to drive north. Along the way, they revisit old regrets and losses and come to terms with much about the lives they lived on the frontier.
[edit] Origins
McMurtry originally developed the tale in 1972 as a feature film entitled The Streets of Laredo (a title later used for the sequel), which was to have starred John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and James Stewart, and be directed by Peter Bogdanovich. When plans fell through, the original screenplay went into limbo. McMurtry later resurrected the unproduced screenplay as a full-length novel, which became a bestseller and won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The mini-series is considered by many to be one of the finest westerns ever made. It is also considered a much better miniseris than another 80s miniseries, North and South (TV miniseries), which was criticized for being too much like an 80s prime time soap opera.
[edit] Characters in Lonesome Dove
- Captain Augustus McCrae - Co-owner of the Hat Creek Cattle Company, McCrae considers himself the brains of the outfit. Generous, humorous, and lazy to the point of eccentricity, he serves as a foil to the more serious, practical Call. When not working (which he does as little as possible), Gus pursues his three chief interests in life: women, alcohol and cards. He is well-known in the territory for his loud voice, superior eyesight and accuracy with a revolver.
- Captain Woodrow F. Call - Gus's partner in the company. Less verbose and chatty than McCrae, Call works long and hard and sees no reason why others should not do the same. A former ranger, he served with Gus when both were young men. Though Call has utter disdain for lazy men who drink, gamble, and whore their lives away, he has his own secret shame which he hides carefully from his comrade. Call's ability to manage unmanageable horses is also well-known.
- Pea Eye Parker - The wrangler and blacksmith of the Hat Creek Cattle Company, Pea Eye served as a ranger under Gus and Call. Pea Eye (his real name long forgotten) is not especially bright, but he is reliable, brave, and kind. He follows Call's lead without question.
- Joshua Deets - An escaped slave, Deets is a ranch hand at the company. On the drive, he serves as scout. A remarkable tracker and morally upright man, he is one of the few men whom Call respects and trusts.
- Newt Dobbs - A young orphan raised by Gus and Call. His mother was a whore named Maggie, who died when he was a child. He is uncertain as to who his father is; both Jake Spoon and Captain Call are possible candidates.
- Jake Spoon - A former comrade-in-arms of Gus, Call, Pea Eye, and Deets. Jake is, if anything, even lazier and even less reliable than Gus. A gambler and drinker, Jake prefers living in luxury and ease and shirks work with a passion, which irks Call mightily. He is, however, a man of great personal charm and is seldom unlucky in love.
- Dishwater Boggett - A cowboy of great skill, "Dish" serves as the top hand for Call's cattle drive. His main aspiration is to win the love of Lorena Wood.
- Lorena Wood - A kind-hearted young woman who was forced into prostitution by her lover, she was then abandoned in Lonesome Dove. Lorena is silent, strong willed, and intimidating, refusing to submit meekly to her various admirers. Discontent with her line of work, "Lorie" hopes to leave the dead town and find her way to San Francisco.
- Blue Duck - When Gus and Call quit Rangering, Blue Duck was unfinished business. The son of a Comanche war chief and his Mexican prisoner, Blue Duck leads a band of renegade Indians and buffalo hunters. He is feared across the plains as a murderer, rapist, and slaver.
- July Johnson - The sheriff of the town of Fort Smith, Arkansas. July is a kind, long suffering young man, recently married to a woman he knows little about. After his brother, Ben, is accidentally killed by Jake Spoon, July's domineering sister-in-law Peach bullies him into setting out in pursuit. July is accompanied by his young stepson, Joe, and his incompetent deputy, Roscoe.
- Roscoe Brown - The deputy sheriff of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Roscoe is a timid man who spends his days playing dominoes and occasionally bringing in the local drunk for an overnight stay at the jail. After July is sent off after Jake Spoon, Roscoe is coerced into tracking down July's wife, Elmira, who has run away in July's absence. Roscoe is also afraid of wild pigs.
- Clara Allen - A former love of Gus, she declined his marriage proposals years ago. She lives in Nebraska, married to a horse trader who has been mortally wounded by a horse kick. They have two girls, though she is afflicted deeply by the death of her sons. Though separated by Gus by many miles and years, she still holds him fondly in her heart. In contrast, she has utter contempt for Call.
- Po Campo - Cook for the Hat Creek Cattle Company on their cattle drive. Picked up on the way during a stop in San Antonio. He is most notable for his use of "exotic" ingredients and his refusal to ride animals. Po had a wife that he "sent to hell," as Po Campo said, where she belonged.
- Elmira Johnson - July's cold hearted, pregnant wife. Shortly after July departs to track Jake Spoon, Elmira flees town in search of old flame Dee Boot. She finally gets to Ogallala just before Dee is hanged for murder. Along the way she gives birth at Clara Allen's ranch and abandons her baby there. She and the buffalo hunters are killed by the Sioux shortly after leaving Ogallala.
[edit] Allusions/references to actual history and current science
According to McMurtry, Gus and Call were not modeled after historical characters, but there are similarities with real-life cattle drivers Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight. When Goodnight and Loving's guide Bose Ikard died, Goodnight carved a wooden tombstone for him, just as Call does for Deets. Upon Loving's death, Goodnight brought him home to be buried in Texas, just as Call does for Augustus. (Goodnight himself appears as a minor but sympathetic character in this novel, and more so in the sequel, Streets of Laredo.)
Other books of the Lonesome Dove series feature more prominent historical events (the Santa Fe Expedition, Comanche raid) and characters (Buffalo Hump, John Wesley Hardin, Judge Roy Bean).
Several years ago, McMurtry mentioned in a newspaper interview that he first thought of the name for his epic while at a restaurant in Oklahoma. On that day, he noticed a unique name on the side of a church passenger van that was in the restaurant parking lot. That name, which left an impression on him, came from a van which was owned by Lonesome Dove Baptist Church in Southlake, Texas. Lonesome Dove has existed as a Baptist church and cemetery in Southlake since 1846.
[edit] Awards and nominations
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
A television movie adaptation was broadcast in 1990. It starred Robert Duvall as Augustus McCrae, Tommy Lee Jones as Woodrow F. Call, Rick Schroder as Newt, Diane Lane as Lorena Wood, Danny Glover as Joshua Deets, Robert Urich as Jake Spoon, and Anjelica Huston as Clara Allen.
[edit] Trivia
The publication sequence of the novels in the Lonesome Dove series is different than the narrative sequence.
[edit] References
- McMurtry, Larry (1985). Lonesome Dove: a novel. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-50420-7.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie |
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1986 |
Succeeded by A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor |
