The Trail to
Ogallala – Benjamin Capps
Unlike the herculean characters and melodramatic plots of
Louis L’Amour, Benjamin Capps (1922 -
2001) wrote about relatable characters and realistic situations. This 1964 western tells the story of a cattle
drive dogged by jittery cattle, natural phenomenon from cyclones to skunk stink,
and man’s inability to get along with his fellow man due to his stubborn inability
to admit inability.
Our hero is Billy Scott, determined to do well in his
first experience at being trail boss. However, he agrees to become a hired hand
when the boss' widow hires an ex-Confederate colonel as trail boss. The colonel
hires a big dumb bastard as his second in command. Telling more of the story would
spoil the surprises so I can only urge readers to read this superior western.
During World War II, Capps was trained as a navigator of
a B-24 Liberator. He flew forty bombing missions in the Pacific and attained
the rank of first lieutenant. Taking advantage of the GI Bill, Capps enrolled
in UT at Austin. He was graduated in 1948 with a B.A. and Phi Beta Kappa in
English and in 1949 he received his masters in English. Clearly he was no
stranger to painstaking research and this novel shows that he did his homework with
regard to the challenges of cattle drives in the late 19th century. He coupled
this reading with boyhood growing up on a ranch near Archer City, Texas, no
doubt getting a sense of what recalcitrant creatures
cows can be. Capps’ other notable books are Sam Chance, The White Man’s
Road, and A Woman of the People.
No comments:
Post a Comment