Milton Lott

This seemingly little-known novel of the American West was made into a 1957 film of the same title, a film I like a great deal. What is also little known is the fact that this novel was chosen by the Pulitzer Prize jury as the prizewinner in fiction in 1955, but the governing board overruled the judges because they felt that William Faulkner was overdue for the prize. Thus the 1955 prize went to Faulkner for A Fable, one of his lesser works, instead of the jury's choice of The Last Hunt. On learning this tidbit of history, I was incensed, for though I had come to Lott's novel under the impression that it was one of thousands of Western potboilers of the period, I learned quickly in reading that it was a major work of American literature, one to stand with A.B. Guthrie's The Big Sky, his Pulitzer-awarded The Way West, and Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. Essentially the tale of four men engaged in the rugged and gruesome work of buffalo hunting, The Last Hunt provides not merely a story but a detailed and poetic view of the natural world and a deep psychological understanding of the men at its center. It is a harsh yet sometimes tender novel, filled with riches of nuance and color. I think it is one of the great twentieth-century American novels and I am astounded that I had never heard of it until a few months ago. I give it the highest recommendation.… (meer)