''The Way West'' is a 1949

western novel Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 20th century and ...

A. B. Guthrie, Jr. Alfred Bertram Guthrie Jr. (January 13, 1901 – April 26, 1991) was an American novelist, screenwriter, historian, and literary historian known for writing western stories. His novel ''The Way West'' won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and h ...

The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1950 and became the basis for a

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

starring

Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in '' The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. D ...

, Robert Mitchum, and Richard Widmark. The novel is one in the sequence of six by

dealing with the

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what is now the state of Kans ...

and the development of

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

from 1830, the time of the

mountain men A mountain man is an explorer who lives in the wilderness. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s (with a peak population in the early 1840s). They were instrumental in opening up ...

, to "the cattle empire of the 1880s to the near present". The publication sequence started with ''The Big Sky'', followed by ''The Way West'', ''These Thousand Hills'', ''Arfive'' (1971), ''The Last Valley'' (1975), and ''

Fair Land, Fair Land Alfred Bertram Guthrie Jr. (January 13, 1901 – April 26, 1991) was an American novelist, screenwriter, historian, and literary historian known for writing western stories. His novel ''The Way West'' won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and h ...

''.''Fair Land, Fair Land''
(1982) The first three books of the six in chronological story sequence (but not in the sequence of publishing) — ''The Big Sky'', ''The Way West'', and ''Fair Land, Fair Land'' — are in themselves a complete trilogy, starting in 1830 with Boone Caudill leaving Kentucky to become a mountain man and ending with the death of Caudill and later the death of Dick Summers in the 1870s.

Plot introduction

Former senator William Tadlock leads a

wagon train ''Wagon Train'' is an American Western series that aired 8 seasons: first on the NBC television network (1957–1962), and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and became number one in the Nielsen ratings ...

along the

from

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

with the help of hired guide Dick Summers. After several accidents which cost settlers' lives, a mutiny of sorts develops and his position is overtaken by Lije Evans. Soon, different factions develop amongst the people of the train as they try to survive their trek to

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

Release details

*1949, US, W. Sloane (ISBN NA), Pub date ? ? 1949, hardback (First edition) *2002, US, Mariner Books (), Pub date ? January 2002, paperback

References

External links

Photos of the first edition of The Way West
{{DEFAULTSORT:Way West, The 1949 American novels Pulitzer Prize for Fiction-winning works Western (genre) novels Novels by A. B. Guthrie Jr. Pre-statehood history of Montana Oregon Trail Novels set in Missouri Novels set in Oregon Midwestern United States in fiction Northwestern United States in fiction American novels adapted into films