Give Your Heart to the Hawks: A Tribute to the Mountain Men [Paperback]

Winfred Blevins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1982

For over thirty years, from the time of Lewis and Clark into the 1840s, the mountain men explored the Great American West. As trappers in a hostile, trackless land, their exploits opened the gates of the mountains for the wagon trains of pioneers who followed them.

In Give Your Heart to the Hawks, Win Blevins presents a poetic tribute to these dauntless "first Westerners" and their incredible adventures. Here, among many, are the stories of:

* John Colter, who, in 1808, naked and without weapons or food, escaped captivity by the Blackfeet and ran and walked 250 miles to Fort Lisa at the mouth of the Yellowstone River;

* Hugh Glass, who was mauled by a grizzly in 1823, left for dead by his trapper companions, and crawled 300 miles to Fort Kiowa on the Missouri;

* Kit Carson, who ran away from home at age 17, became a legendary mountain man in his 20s and served as scout and guide for John C. Fremont's westward explorations of the 1840s;

* Jedediah Smith, a tall, gaunt, Bible-reading New Yorker whose trapping expeditions ranged from the Rockies to California and who was killed by Comanches on the Cimarron in 1831.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Give Your Heart to the Hawks:"It was an epic time, which lasted hardly more than a third of a century before civilization swarmed west on trails the mountain men had blazed. Now Blevins sees they are paid the awed honor that is due them, in a book which has the drama and suspense of a novel."—Los Angeles Times
"No one since the great A. B. Guthrie, Jr., has a better feel for the world of the mountain man."—Don Coldsmith
"For the lover of the early West, it is good entertainment... with lots of color, suspense and excitement."—The Denver Post
Praise for the Rendezvous Series:
"A rousing installment in a fine epic of the American frontier."--Publishers Weekly on Beauty for Ashes
"The glory years of frontier life, fresh and rich. "—Kirkus Reviews on Beauty for Ashes
"[An] entertaining, vivid portrait of frontier America as seen through the eyes of an impressionable youth."—Booklist on So Wild A Dream
"So Wild a Dream is a fabulous beginning of what promises to become a classic series that will be on college reading lists in history classes studying the fur trade era."—Roundup Magazine

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Win Blevins is the author of a dozen novels, several volumes of informal history, and Dictionary of the American West. Among his awards: In 2003 Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers named him Writer of the Year, Stone Song, won the a Spur Award and a Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award for Best Fiction. Win's his first novel in the Forge "Rendezvous" series, So Wild a Dream, won the Spur award for Best Novel of the West in 2004.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (October 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380006944
• ISBN-13: 978-0380006946
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,618,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I came out of Missouri and Arkansas, of Irish, Welsh, and Cherokee heritage. After a whirlwind of colleges and jobs, I discovered that books are my calling, and I've written more than twenty, primarily about mountain men and Indian people. Though awards are less important than readers, I'm glad when they come, and was delighted to be named Writer of the Year in 2003 by Wordcraft Circle of Native writers.

I live with my wife Meredith, the novelist, in a remote corner of the canyonlands of Utah.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Alumni of Rocky Mountain College, June 17, 2005

By 

Theo Logos (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Give Your Heart to the Hawks: A Tribute to the Mountain Men (Paperback)

Winfred Blevins' `Give Your Heart to the Hawks' is exactly what its sub title claims - a tribute to the Mountain Men. It is neither a historical novel nor a pure history. Rather, it is accurate history, albeit with Blevins' interpretation of the thoughts and emotions that the mountain men were experiencing during some of their most dangerous and daring exploits added. This technique removes the book from the roles of strict history, but works well in creating the tribute that the author intended, for his goal was not simply to chronicle the bones of their history, but to bring to life their wild and free existence and allow the reader to enter into the spirit of the mountain man's life.
Blevins does not attempt a comprehensive account of the mountain men. Some are covered extensively, like John Colter, the prototype mountain man, Jim Bridger, and Jed Smith, the most atypical and perhaps greatest of the mountain men. Others, like Old Bill Williams, Joe Walker, and Kit Carson are barely covered or mentioned only in passing. Blevins does not cover the mountain men of the southwest at all. Instead, he illuminates his chosen subjects in depth, choosing to fully explore the life that the mountain men lived rather than broadly covering the entire scope of their collective history.
To recreate the wild drama of the mountain man's life, Blevins tells some of the most thrilling tales of the era, like John Colter's desperate naked run from Indian braves pursuing him for sport, Hugh Glass' amazing solo trek through 300 miles of wilderness without weapons or any tools for survival after being left for dead when mauled by a grizzly, or Jed Smith's daring crossings of the desert and mountains to find a land route to California. He writes of these men, "Any man who survived for several years as a trapper, taking responsibility for his own survival alone in the wilds, had been schooled thoroughly by the Rocky Mountains. ...He had graduated from Rocky Mountain College, a pragmatic university that gave no degrees, but flunked men into their graves." Between the various stories of specific mountain men, he includes interludes that detail important aspects of their life and trade - trapping, yarning, rendezvous, buffalo - cuisine premiere, mountain craft, mountain mating, and trappers and Indians are a few of the interesting subjects of mountain life dealt with in these interludes. He also includes a few colorful accounts written by the rare, literate mountain man detailing their unique life. He succeeds admirably in breathing life into this too often neglected period of amazing individuals who blazed the way for the westward expansion of the American nation.
While Blevins' writing is not always stellar, he manages to create an effective and stirring tribute to the wild individuals who chose to live free in the Rocky Mountains. No one who is interested in the period should miss it. Both students of the period of the mountain men and fur trade and those looking for a good introduction to the subject will find `Give Your Heart to the Hawks' a fascinating and rewarding reading experience.

Theo Logos

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book I've Ever Read, May 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Give Your Heart to the Hawks: A Tribute to the Mountain Men (Paperback)

After having been an avid reader of books on many varied subjects over the last 40 years, I can truly say that this is the best book I have ever read on any subject, fiction and non-fiction. Anyone who desires to learn about the true life of freedom experienced by the mountain men or who wishes to learn of the history of the early West will not be disapointed with this book and will come away from the experience with a profound appreciation of the early trail-blazers. This is one of those books that you "can't put down." I will never give this book away but will purchase copies for my friends who have the same interests. Tom Dering

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WAGHHHHHH!, July 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Give Your Heart to the Hawks: A Tribute to the Mountain Men (Paperback)

An incredible read; an incredible story, make that stories. I couldn't wait to get home every night to continue the never ending saga of these men of heroic proportions. The depth of information by the author woven into an amazing technicolor fabric of a story that really needs to be told and told well is in this book. I became immersed in the lives of these characters and characters they were; I could almost feel what they felt as they lived their lives among that untamed wilderness we simply call the west, however, the lives of these amazing men was anything but simple.