Oklahoma Odyssey

In the anti-revenge novel "The Run," set in 1892 during the Cherokee Outlet Land Run, Euly plots to make his fortune with the aid of his sister and friend, while Johnny witnesses Buffalo Soldiers evicting Eddie from a ranch. Despite the nonviolence theme, there is violence in the rousing finish.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 324 pages
Publication date: 01 April 2022
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

In the late autumn of 1892, outlaw Eddie Mole rode down the main street of Jericho Springs, Kansas, where he robbed and shot dead the freighter Barney Kreider. Some urged Barneys son Ulysses (known as "Euly") to seek revenge, but Euly was a Mennonite, and Mennonites do not seek revenge. Instead, Euly plotted with his half-Osage sister, Kate, and his friend Johnny, an Osage farmhand, to make his fortune with the aid of the settlers converging on Caldwell, Kansas, for the land run going on in the Cherokee Outlet. When Johnny tracked Eddie into the Cherokee Outlet, he witnessed Buffalo Soldiers evicting Eddie from a ranch, leaving it public domain, and Johnny and Kate made the run for that beautiful land. Euly followed closely behind, even as Eddie, riding from Arkansas City, tried to reclaim his old ranch.

John Morts narrative is an anti-revenge novel, always opting for nonviolence. However, there is violence nonetheless, as Eddies and Barneys survivors converge in a rousing finish. Though this novel uses some of the architecture and motifs of traditional westerns, it is carefully researched and set in the unfolding of a pivotal, neglected historical event.

Weight: 413g
Dimension: 216 x 140 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781496229731