Lord Grizzly
Lord Grizzly is a 1954 biographical novel by Frederick Manfred. It was part of his Buckskin Man Tales series of five novels. The novel is the first one published under Frederick Manfred with his prior seven novels published under the name Feike Feikema. A screenplay was written by the husband of the author's daughter Freya, but no film was ever produced. The novel was a bestseller and it was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1955.
Plot
It describes the survival ordeal of a real mountain man, Hugh Glass, who was attacked by a bear and abandoned in the wilderness by his companions (a young Jim Bridger and John S. Fitzpatrick), on the assumption he could not possibly live. Glass, with a broken leg and open wounds, had to crawl most of the way to Fort Kiowa to reach safety. When crawling back, Hugh could only dwell on revenge to the men who abandoned him.
History
Manfred previously wrote seven novels from 1944 to 1951, under the name Feike Feikema, and they received poor reception. Due to his expanding family and debt, the author started a poll at a street corner in
Film
The husband of Manfred's daughter Freya, Tom Pope, produced a screenplay for Lord Grizzly, but studios were not interested at the time due to it being a western. When the film The Revenant, based on the 2002 novel about Hugh Glass, was released, Manfred's daughter and her husband were sad that it was not based on Lord Grizzly.[2]
Reception
Madison Jones of The New York Times wrote in reference to the five Buckskin Man Tales novels, "But the very best of these novels, and surely a Western classic, is Lord Grizzly."[4] William Carlos Williams said, "I have never in my lifetime of reading about our West met with anything like it."[4] Lord Grizzly was a bestseller, and a finalist for the National Book Award in 1955.[5][6]
References
- ^ a b "Author Rings Fiction Bell With New Name Fine Novel". The Fresno Bee. February 20, 1955. Archived from the original on May 20, 2021. Retrieved May 20, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f Kerr, Euan (May 8, 2016). "'Lord Grizzly': Celebrating a Minnesota literary classic". Minnesota Public Radio. Archived from the original on May 20, 2021. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
- ^ a b "1954 Manfred book first-rate fiction". Rapid City Journal. January 8, 1984. p. 17. Archived from the original on May 20, 2021. Retrieved May 20, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c Jones, Madison (February 16, 1975). "Frederick Manfred—parallels with Homer". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 20, 2021. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
- ^ "Frederick Manfred". University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Archived from the original on May 20, 2021. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
- ^ "Lord Grizzly". National Book Foundation. Archived from the original on May 20, 2021. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
Further reading
- Hugh Glass, Bruce Bradley (1999) ISBN 0-9669005-0-2
- Lord Grizzly, Frederick Manfred. (1954) ISBN 0-8032-8118-8
- Saga of Hugh Glass: Pirate, Pawnee and Mountain Man, ISBN 0-8032-5834-8