Belle Starr by Speer Morgan

Abstract

56 Western American Literature her correspondents were many western writers, and Pearce selected letters' from such westerners as Ina Coolbrith, Andy Adams, Stewart Edward White: Edwin Markham, Jack London, Alice Corbin Henderson, Sinclair LeWis' Willa Cather, Witter Bynner, Robinson Jeffers, and Eugene Manlov~ Rhodes. Other important writers and leaders - Herbert Hoover, Van wyck1 Brooks, and Sherwood Anderson, to name a few - wrote letters to Austin' that Pearce has also included in this edition. Unfortunately, Pearce does not' explain his criteria for selection. He says only that the letters were selected. from the Mary Austin Collection in the Huntington Library. He does nag say how many letters are in that collection nor how many letters by and to Austin are held in other collections. Without knowing more about existing. Austin letters, the reader will probably wonder why Literary Americ;.' includes more discussion of Austin's lesser works (especially her plays) than' of The Land of Little Rain. Pearce's arrangement of the letters is less than ideal. He groups letter~; not only according to Austin's place of residence, but also by writer, and', therefore the reader must jump back and forth chronologically. Letter 59; (January 31,1927) is followed by Letter 60 (February 28, 1931), Letter61~ (December 23, 1923), and Letter 62 (March 1'1, 1921) - an extremei example, but one that's illustrative of the problem. ,'~ Nevertheless, some of the individual letters in this selection are of sudr! importance and are prefaced by such informative introductions by Pearce; that Literary America should be in every public and college library. Eugene Manlove Rhodes' puns and Jack London's statements about his intentions' in writing The Sea Wolf and Martin Eden are only a few of the nuggets,' that shouldn't be missed by students of western American literature. useful work also reminds us that we still need editions of the letters of other western writers. JAMES H. MAGUIRE, Boise State Belle Starr. By Speer Morgan. (Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1979. pages, $9.95.) Belle Starr is a novel written by an ex-Rolling Stone reviewer Fort Smith, Arkansas, who now co-directs the creative writing program the University of Missouri. I mention these facts because they offer a explanation for the strange combination of art and non-art in the Reviews 57 Ostensibly, Morgan's novel is based on the few known facts about Belle Starr and a good deal of legendary material still in circulation in the Eastern Oklahoma-Fort Smith region. Morgan has used this material in an '~~ffort to give literary life to an unusual American woman, and in many ways ; ,he is successful - particularly in pace, dialogue, description, and interest, .matters in which academic creative writers often excel. Furthermore, in a way that academic creative writers sometimes do not excel, Belle Starr is a novel of place.. It is as much about the Cherokee Nation of 1889 as it is ;:"~bout Belle Starr herself. The diversity of Indians, the bitterness of intra- ;:tribal feuds, the white politics of land grabbing, the "boomer" mentality, the actual life of people living on land not really meant for human habitation, .'the impact of the Oklahoma landscape on the senses - these things in Belle Starr, as Morgan depicts them, give the novel a significance far beyond that of its title character. Compared to his evocation of the Cherokee Nation, Morgan's treatment of Belle Starr herself is less appealing, though perhaps more difficult to begin with. The novel tries hard to make her a complex character but seems to end up reducing her urges to an obsessive concern for her adult children. The additional complications of sexual intercourse and menopause , with which Morgan himself seems a bit obsessed, are intriguing but only crudely convincing. Curiously, the best character in the novel is a man, Blue Duck, an Indian dentist and Belle Starr's "consort." Only through Blue Duck's ambivalent responses to Belle Starr does she begin to take on genuine credibility as the central character of the novel. That his ambivalence changes to blind commitment only when Belle is flat on her back and experiencing ?rgasmic delight for the first time in the novel-- albeit on the top of...