Rare Books
The race of the rails
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Jonathan Heywood letter to Jane Heywood
Manuscripts
Jonathan Heywood writes to his wife, Jane, about his experiences digging for gold outside Sacramento. He has had a rough go of it, and remarks "I would not advise any of my friends to come here if they can make a comfortable living at home."
mssHM 4174
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Rails above the plains
Rare Books
It was five years since Buck Holden had been in his home town of Boreas. His Uncle Anse hoped he had returned to the Snowy Range country to help out on the Holden ranch, but, instead, Buck was to supervise the laying down of track for the Seaboard Western Railroad in a region where the Great Plains and Western was all-powerful and determined that nothing should interfere with their monopoly. Ed Ryder, the big man behind Great Plains, didn't care what methods he used to stop Buck. This was furthered complicated by the fact that Buck had long been in love with Ryder's niece, and that she was now living in her uncle's house and acting as his advocate--Adapted from jacket.
644145
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Find a victim
Rare Books
"'He was the ghastliest hitch-hiker who ever thumbed me,' says Archer, recalling how it all started. And by the time the man was stowed into Archer's car so much blood had been pumped out of the round hole in his chest that the body was almost lifeless. By the time he reached hospital there was no life at all. But on the way, Archer had stopped for help at Kerrigan's motel, and his reception there didn't come up to what a good Samaritan might except. Archer, who had no business in this little desert town and didn't know a single soul living--or dying--in it, had to postpone his journey to Sacramento to give evidence at the inquest. And being Archer, he didn't spend the time sitting in a hotel bedroom; though he would have been a lot more comfortable if he had, because there was precious little time for sleep once he started finding out why that body had a hole in it"--Dust jacket.
636032
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Jack London letter to editor of "Youth's Companion,"
Manuscripts
In this letter, London writes to the magazine's copy editor defending vital aspects of his story. London ends the letter by asking about his payment, which he had not yet received.
mssHM 80610
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Gideon Johnson Pillow letter to Mrs. Mary E. Pillow
Manuscripts
Gideon Pillow writes to his wife of his ongoing recovery from a wound suffered during the Mexican War in 1847, and of his experiences as part of the struggle. He hopes to be well enough in a couple of weeks to resume his duties. He writes of his children, and says he will send his wife a lock of his hair in his next letter, which he hopes to write in ten days, as proof that the horrors of the war have not caused him to neglect "the requests of his dear wife."
mssHM 3614
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Israel N. Prince letters to Elizabeth E. Hodsdon
Manuscripts
Series of letters written by Israel N. Prince to his sister Elizabeth E. Hodsdon in Falmouth, Maine. Prince's first letter traces his journey by boat from Boston to Charleston in 1850. The next several letters provide a detailed look at the hardships of frontier life in the Nebraska Territory, where Prince lives humbly ("our dogs have a more comfortable house," he writes), holds low a low opinion of many of his neighbors ("the character [of frontier people] is not what I could wish it might be," he laments), works briefly on the Burlington Railroad (which ended with "considerable loss"), and is disinterested in in the California and Kansas "excitement," although he later thought about moving to California or Oregon. Prince also urges Elizabeth and her family to come west, answers her questions about when he will return home by saying "when I came into the western country it was my determination not to go back till I had done something," writes of his many uncertainties ("I seem to myself to be peculiar in some respects," he noted, "At times I hardly know what to make of myself"), and shamefully admits his failures ("I hated to tell you that I was too poor to own a farm of any description"). Beginning in 1861 the letters describe "the great war feeling around" and Prince's enlistment in Company "C" of the 1st Nebraska Volunteers in June 1861. He was initially stationed at Pilot Knob, Missouri, and guarded bridges on the Iron Mountain Railroad, and writes of a difficult march to Springfield and an enemy raid at Georgetown, Missouri. Most of his time was spent near the Tennessee/Mississippi border between Savannah and Danville. Prince writes of his participation in the Battle of Shiloh and of the Army of Southeastern Missouri, which in early 1863 had just finished "one of the hardest campaigns of the war" (probably part of Grant's Central Mississippi Campaign). He alludes to "daily skirmishes," although also notes that his sister probably knows better than he what is happening since he has little access to newspapers or outside information. In addition to chronicling the movements of his regiment, Prince outlines the difficulties of army life, including long "forced marches," the shortness of supplies, his many illnesses, the possibility of his death, and the unpopularity of the men in command. In his last letter Prince writes that there is little hope for a promotion since "I don't believe I am a great favorite with some of the officers." Specific references are made to General John Davidson, Secretary of War Simon Cameron, General John C. Frémont, and General Justus McKinstry.
mssHM 75851-75872