Bad Man Ballad

by Scott Russell Sanders

Overview

The time is 1813, during America's last war with England; the place is the Ohio Valley, the thickly wooded, hilly, creek-carved highway of western settlement. Wolves still howl at midnight on village greens. Each log cabin is a fortress, and no one travels without a knife and gun. Through this armed and fearful countryside, three people—Ely Jackson, a 17-year-old backwoods boy; Owen Lightfoot, a lawyer from Philadelphia with a romantic view of the frontier; and Rain Hawk, a half-breed girl living on her own in the wilderness—chase an awesome quarry, a mysterious giant-like figure who is on the run for murder. Ely and Owen set out on the trail of the "Bearman" with the intent of bringing him "to justice," while Rain Hawk struggles to protect him from the public's wrath. Bad Man Ballad is a riveting tale by a masterful storyteller and an appealing contemporary addition to the Library of Indiana Classics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253216885
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	04/06/2004
Series:	Library of Indiana Classics
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	10 Years

About the Author

Scott Russell Sanders is Distinguished Professor of English at Indiana University. His other books include Writing from the Center (1995), Terrarium (1996), and (with Will Counts and James H. Madison) Bloomington Past and Present (2002), all published by IU Press, as well as Hunting for Hope: A Father's Journeys (1999) and The Force of Spirit (2000). He lives in Bloomington, Indiana.

Editorial Reviews

"This fantastic tale . . . is rich with vivid detail. . . It is also a fine look at a little-documented time in our history, and a novel that lingers long after reading."—Publishers Weekly

"The frontier world recreated here is consistently persuasive."—New York Times

From the Publisher

The frontier world recreated here is consistently persuasive.

New York Times

Two historical novels by Hoosier authors make their re-entry on the scene. The Bad Man Ballad by Scott Russell Sanders, originally published by Bradbury Press in 1986, begins with the discovery of a murdered dwarf in 1813 in the Ohio Valley, and becomes a quest for a lawyer and a teenage boy to find the "giant" responsible, in this unflinching portrait of mob mentality and fear of the "other." In The Dark Didn't Catch Me by Crystal Thrasher, first published by Atheneum in 1975, a family tries to pull together during the Depression in rural Indiana as 11-year-old Seely describes her schooling, her abusive father and other challenges. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly