Paul Horgan (1903–1995)

A nice to surprise to find this book in a thrift store with zero prior knowledge of the author and end up with a great reading experience. Too many 'westerns' or at least books set in the west of the frontier are the Louis L'amour or Ralph Compton variety, they may be ok but are a little one-dimensional. I won't throw Elmer Kelton under that bus, too good! But A Distant Trumpet on the other hand is a long book with a fully developed set of interesting and complex characters and is a portrait of a slice of America at that time not likely to be bested. I'm surprised this is not on a list of the best books about the American West, at least the few I checked out. I've read a few that are on such lists and this surpasses most entirely. Will definitely be looking for something else by Paul Horgan, as I learned he was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History (and it shows in this book!). Interestingly, he was also friends with J. Robert Oppenheimer. Those must have been some interesting conversations!… (meer)