The Tom-Walker: A Novel

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U of Nebraska Press, Jan 1, 1984 - History - 372 pages
A hold, biting novel by the author of Old Jules and Crazy Horse, The Tom-Walker spans three generations in a Midwestern family.

The patriarch, Milt Stone, who lost a leg fighting in Grant's army, is the Tom-Walker, circusøslang for man on stilts. After the Civil War he takes his family west to the Missouri country. There he gains a reputation as a raconteur and as a passionate defender of the little man who works hard, fights the wars, and gets squeezed out by powerful interests. He lives to see his son and grandson fight in World War I and World War II, respectively, and return home from those wars, maimed like him, only to have to resume a fight just to stay alive.

Crowded with living characters, The Tom-Walker never loses the larger view of American history. From the Gilded Age to the Atomic Age, everybody is "trying to be either a Jay Gould or a Jesse James, out for easy money, everybody [is] wanting to be king of something: mines, railroads, cattle, outlaws, anything." How people like the Stones fare is the story within this story.

 

Contents

5Gold Eagle Warm in the Palm
67
6The EasyWalking Woman
86
7 Ants in the Butter Dish
104
8Whole Sound and Whole
123
BOOK II
141
6 For Cottonwoods and Children
227
7Death of a Buckskin
246
BOOK III
252
2Lemon Pie for Sunday
284
3Tame Cat on the Doorstep
301
4Wyoming Regatta
4
104
104
143
143
208
208
227
227
267
267

1 The Portable Extradimensional Hole
267
284
284

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