Customer Reviews

The Saga of Hugh Glass: Pirate, Pawnee, and Mountain Man

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Mountain man Hugh Glass was a legend to his peers, many of them legends themselves. His fame spread to the East, where his incredible story was told in the newspapers of Philadelphia. His legend entered the lore of Indian tribes as well, where it was still being told many decades after his passing. But with the coming of the 20th century, Hugh's legend faded into obscurity. John Myers Myers' The Saga of Hugh Glass is an excellent attempt to rescue Hugh from the obscurity that he had faded into and restore him to his rightful place among American frontier legends.
The central tale of Hugh's legend is almost too fantastic to be believed. Attacked and mauled to the point of death by a grizzly bear, he was left in the wilderness to die by companions who robbed him of his rifle, knife, tomahawk, flint, and nearly all the tools necessary for survival in the wild. Yet Hugh, though horribly wounded, near death and weaponless, navigated over 300 miles of virgin wilderness back to a frontier outpost. Then, after refitting with weapons and equipment, and before his wounds were fully healed, he set out into the wilderness alone once more to make an incredible solo winter journey to retrieve his precious rifle and take vengeance on the companions who had robbed and abandoned him.
Many historians had discounted this story as balderdash - nothing more than the outlandish boasting of a blowhard's self-aggrandizement. Myers addresses this in the first section of his book, carefully assembling the remaining evidence, and building a powerful case for the veracity of the legend. Before launching into Hugh's story, he has already reasonably established that though fantastic, the story you are about to read is true, not just another tall tale.
John Myers Myers is a favorite author of mine. Though he thoroughly researched his histories, he had nothing of the academic about him when telling a tale. He was a pure folk historian, and his writing style is utterly idiosyncratic, and resembles nothing more than a grizzled old story teller telling tales around the fire. His prose is loaded throughout with colorful phrases - "pickled in print", "throwing lead", and "not a bet on which Lloyds of London would risk a confederate dollar". These are just a small sampling of Myers' unique voice. For ears accustomed to more traditional forms of history, his rambling and folksy style may be off-putting. I, however, find it perfectly suited to his subject matter and a charming and refreshing change of pace from the ordinary.
This book should be of great interest for those who study the period of the mountain men and fur trade. It should be on the bookshelf of anyone who loves tales of great American legends. And it is highly recommended reading for anyone who loves stories of amazing true adventure told well.

Theo Logos

My previous exposure to John Myers Myers consists of his two works of fiction (Silverlock and The Harp and the Blade), both of which I enjoyed greatly and have treasured. I knew that he'd written historical books like this, but had never run across one. A review on Amazon tipped me off to this book.

Myers has a very peculiar, particular voice which he uses a great deal early in this slim volume (his text settles back into a more mainstream flow as the pages fly by), which is a little odd, but somewhat amusing. He wears his heart on his sleeve and it is quite clear what he thinks of his sources, of the historical characters, and so on. Balanced and nuanced this book ain't!

But then maybe it shouldn't be. Here is a story that just seems too tall a tale, right up there with a certain large lumberjack and his technicolor ox or stretched from the same cloth as Dan'l Boone was in Fess Parker's portrayal, about a man who wouldn't say quit come pirates, bears, or (forgive the era that spawned it) "wild" Indians. Hugh Glass, if you've never heard of him, might have been the greatest of the mountain men.

Myers builds a pretty good case for the man and his adventures having taken place. Here's a hero I hadn't really encountered before and Myers make his legend believable without ruining exploits worthy of campfire retellings. Not too big a book, just right. I recommend it (in spite of Myers's oddities).

This is an enjoyable read of an early day fur trapper and his adventures (misadventures) in the uncharted wilderness. I must agree with some reviewers that the author can be quite quirky in his writing style with offbeat, way-out puns and phraseology, but nevertheless a good read. Myers justifies the many hardships of Hugh Glass through several second hand sources for those unbelievers of this somewhat, but not, fictional character. Glass was captured by pirates, escaped, then was captured by the Pawnees and later lived with them for some years. He then left the Pawnees and joined Ashley's fur expeditions to the Rockies. Many a narrow escape with Indians, but probably the most celebrated adventure of his life was the mauling by a grizzly and the ensuing tales thereof. One reviewer mentioned how they should make a movie out of this book. Well, they did, many years ago. "Man in the Wilderness" starring Richard Harris is based on Hugh Glass and his heroic adventure with the grizzly.

Well, I warn you, I really like John Myers Myers. He is self indulgent, humorous, and likes to take his time getting to the topic of a story.

Frankly, don't read this book if you are looking for a hell-bent-for-leather, in your face kind of adventure. This is not it. It is intead two stories - the search for details about a man who history did not leave a clear record of, and then the history of that man. It can be a difficult read, but there is much to enjoy here, and you will be glad you read it when you are done.

That said, try finding a copy of this used. Pretty difficult, eh? Why is that....

John Myers Myers is a wordy, self-indulgent writer, with a tendency to editorialize excessively and to include far too many side-trips for the purpose of turning a clever phrase.

That said, when he has a good story, and really turns loose, you are in for a ride!

The first part of this book is more about research than anything else. Myers tells us about the different tellings of the Hugh Glass tale, and how his true story can be discerned from the rural legends that surround him.

The second part of the book is Glass' tale, and it's a wild one. He starts off as a sailor, is captured by pirates, becomes a pirate, escapes, is caught by the Pawnee tribe, escapes the tribe, becomes a hunter, is (almost) mortally wounded by a bear and abandoned by his party, and then somehow survives it all. Somebody needs to make a movie of this story.

If you are up for a good, somewhat professorial read, then this book will satisfy.

Sometimes all it takes is a single spectacular event to catapult a man into the sphere of immortality. That's what happened to Hugh Glass, thanks to a grizzly bear.

Little is known about Glass's life up to the time he joined William Ashley's first expedition up the Missouri River in 1823. Rumor had it that he was a pirate with Jean Lafite, but it can't be substantiated. After being wounded by the Arikaras in 1823, he went with Andrew Henry's party overland to the Yellowstone River.

It was on this trip that destiny struck. He was attacked and mauled badly by a grizzly bear; two other mountain men, John Fitzgerald and James Bridger, were left with him to tend him in what everyone assumed would be his final hours. But the two men abandoned Glass before his time had come, and Glass held on to life alone. Somehow he crawled 300 miles down the Grand River, living on berries and buffalo carcasses left by wolves, eventually reaching Fort Kiowa on the Missouri.

After recovering from his wounds, Glass set off on a trail of revenge. He ventured to Fort Henry where he suspected Fitzgerald and Bridger to be, only to find the place deserted. More death-defying traipsing resulted until he tracked down Bridger on the Big Horn River; learning that Bridger was only 20 years old, he Glass decided to forgive him. He also learned that Fitzgerald had gone into the army and was beyond his reach. Disappointed in these results, little did he realize that a legend had been born.

During subsequent years Glass trapped throughout the West, being wounded again in an Indian attack near Bear Lake and thereafter became a hunter for Fort Union (ND). Sometime in the winter of 1832-33 he, along with two other men, was killed by Indians on the Yellowstone River.

The accomplishments of other mountain men far outweighed Glass's, but it was his encounter with that grizzly and his incredible survival of the mauling that assured his name would be added to the pantheon of Western heroes. Frederick Manfred wrote a book-length poem based on Glass's feat, but this book by Myers is broader in scope and fuller in detail. There is a long introductory chapter on the legendary aspect of Hugh Glass that places him in the scheme of things. Myers is an excellent writer, but the book contains no footnotes (annotation of some kind would be useful) and no index. Other than that, the book is a Western classic and will be enjoyed by anyone interested in this legendary character or in the fur trade period of the early West. Highly recommended.

Some books grab you on the first page and just won't let go. Others take time to warm up, but then really go for broke.

This book does neither.

Although the author did his research, and can back up every fact presented in the book, it is written in a style that makes for ponderously dry reading - at best!

If you are doing research, then buy this book.

If you are looking for a thrilling story full of old-west charm and wilderness adventure, the look elsewhere - this ain't it!

To read about a man mauled by a grizz, who crawls two hundred miles to "civilization" and goes on to live in the new frontier as one of the ugliest of Mountain Men, can seem beyond belief. Read the book, and see if you give up. Tougher than wang leather, and not knowing the meaning of "give-up" or "back-up" Hugh Glass stands head and shoulders above the rest of a "larger than my-life" hero.

this tired old song keeps getting replayed and nothing new ever comes out of it, like every other telling of the Glass saga it hits the main points, turns a few different corners but really covers the same ground every other telling has told and adds nothing new.
its ok, I would have to say if you read it once anywhere else you've covered it.

Hugh Glass was an amazing man. The story was well researched from every possible angle and the author even captured the humor of the day. Some of the accounts of Indian behavior seemed a bit streached at times, but I took into account the authors' sources. I learned much more about the early days of the unsettled west than I expected. Buy it, read it, give it away.