Buffalo Palace: The Plainsmen [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Terry C. Johnston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 1997

In Buffalo Palace, the young Titus Bass sights, and then sets out into, the vast Rocky Mountain country, where he has his initial experiences with trapping beaver, surviving the freezing winter, fighting fierce Indians and even fiercer fellow mountain men, and celebrating at the hard-earned summer rendezvous. Most memorably, we walk with Titus as he first sees the immense herd which originally fueled his wanderlust, and now feeds, clothes and houses the frontier's pioneers, when he reaches the country lovingly called the "Buffalo Palace."

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Taking up where he left off in Dance on the Wind (LJ 7/95) Johnston sends Titus Bass from St. Louis up the Missouri and Platte to the Rockies, where he joins a trio of fur trappers. Their sadistic leader initiates the greenhorn into the frontier equivalent of "might makes right," beating him savagely when Titus confronts him about pilfering his beaver pelts. Too inexperienced to go it alone, Titus remains with them until the others raft their pelts downriver, abandoning him. Surviving brushes with hostile Indians, he links up with other trappers. The story ends abruptly when, set upon by Blackfeet Indians, Titus is saved by friendly Shoshones, portending a further installment. For the most part well researched, this novel falters only when Johnston digresses at length to summarize events in Dance on the Wind. Recommended for public libraries.
-?Robert P. Jordan, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Titus Bass is 31 years old in 1825 and about to embark on the greatest adventure of his life. After years of trapping the upper Missouri, Titus is alone. His partner has passed away but not before passing along his knowledge of survival in the untamed land west of the Mississippi. Headed for the Great Plains, Titus hooks up with a small band of like-minded adventurers and makes his way northwest from St. Louis. It's an arduous journey, but Titus is determined to reach what is known as the Buffalo Palace. Taking place over an extended period of time in which the protagonist undergoes many changes, Johnston's latest effort again achieves the epic scope familiar from several earlier Bass novels, including Carry the Wind (1982) and Dance on the Wind (1995), which chronicled the character's early life. Readers will look forward to the further adventures of Titus Bass hinted at in the tale's exciting conclusion. Wes Lukowsky --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1ST edition (August 4, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553572830
• ISBN-13: 978-0553572834
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.2 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #479,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank-you Terry for sharing the life of Titus with us again, December 11, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Buffalo Palace (Hardcover)

Wagh, this Child first met up with Ol' Scratch some ten year back when, "Carry the Wind", was published. Each subsequent chapter from, "Borderlords", to "One Eyed Dream", have been read and re-read. After a long wait, Titus Bass joined us once again in, "Dance on the Wind", a wonderful adventure where we see Titus during his youth. In "Buffalo Palace", Terry C. Johnston shares the life of Scratch with his fans once more. This go around takes us through Titus's education from being a tin-horn who wouldn't know slow bull, from fat cow, into a grizzled trapper, minus a little hair. Along the way, Scratch earns his stripes after hardships and a will that won't quit. The adventures that we get to experience through Titus's eyes makes it difficult to wait for the third book in this trilogy. Terry, please hurry!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LIVING THE EXPERIENCES OF THE FORNTIERMEN, March 8, 2007

By 

Mr. Oriano Petrucci (Lafayette, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Buffalo Palace: The Plainsmen (Paperback)

I enjoy reading Terry C. Johnston frontiersmen saga, actually I am devouring book after book he has written. Reading makes me partecipate in those heroic actions carried out by brave and simple men, living a unique era in a wild and harsh environment that disappeared forever, after some decades, due to the expansion of the so said "civilization" broght West by the white settlers.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great writing that leaves you wanting more, April 11, 2008

By 

Douglas G. Thomas "Communications Consultant" (Rio Rancho, NM) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Buffalo Palace: The Plainsmen (Paperback)

This is the second of a 3-book series.

Titus Bass, having departed St. Louis, is making his way west, and he first encounters a widow whom he befriends at a store along his way.

Although his love for women is well-known from the first book, it is surprising that he is now in a position to
help the widow in her grieving by making love to her, which she almost forces on him, but he tenderly helps her to understand she is still a desirable female who surely will find a good man to love her and help raise her children.

Titus eventually sees his buffalo and reaches the mountains.

A side note - in the first book, his older mountain man friend tells Titus about Hugh Glass, and the reader is encouraged to delay picking up this second volume until having read "Lord Grizzly", by Frederick Manfred.

The story of Hugh Glass is a great supplement to this 3-part tale by Johnston.

In the mountains, Titus meets a trio who take him under their collective wings to teach him about the trapping of beaver. Along the way, he becomes a first-rate trapper, eventually giving the most-skilled of the three a close race to see who can trap the most animals.

Toward the end of the book, the three head downstream on two rafts with all the skins to sell or trade for necessary supplies and equipment at a trading post fort. Titus is left with all the animals and the quartet's supplies and equipment with a plan to meet them at a prearranged location upon their anticipated return.

They do not return, and he is eventually attacked by Indians while enroute to rendezvous, the annual trappers' gathering. He is scalped and left for dead, but he survives with the aid of his faithful mule, Hannah. They make their way toward the gathering place, and he encounters a group of trappers who help him to regain his strength and health.

The last book is Carry the Wind, and it is a must-read!