Harvey Fergusson, interpreter of the Southwest

106 Pages·05.61 MB·English

by  Crawford, Blanche Christensen

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University of Texas at El Paso
Thesis no. 95
Author: Crawford, Blanche
Christensen
Title: Harvey Fergusson,
interpreter of the Southwest
OCLC# 2209822
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HARVEY FERGUSSON, INTERPRETER OF THE SOUTHWEST
APPROVED:
affi£r
APPROVED:
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HARVEY FERGUSSON, INTERPRETER OF THE SOUTHWEST
| THESIS
!
4
I PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
of
TEXAS WESTERN COLLEGE
of the University of Texas
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE
of
MASTER OF ARTS
BY
BLANCHE CHRISTENSEN (CRAWFORD
EL PASO, TEXAS
AUGUST, 1951
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. HARVEY FERGUSSON»S BACKGROUND .................. 1
II. RICOS AND POBRES................................ 23
III. MOUNTAIN M E N .....................................56
IV. WHITE SETTLERS ................................ 76
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . * ................... 96
V I T A ..................................................... 97
O
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CHAPTER I
HARVEY FERGUSSON’S BACKGROUND
Born and reared in the Southwest at a time when that
region was passing through a transition from frontier to
civilization, Harvey Fergusson has an innate sympathy, an
understanding and a love for this land of wide horizons,
gorgeous sunsets and purple mountains. These feelings
constituted an overpowering urge which never let him rest
until he had put on paper something of his feeling for the
Southwest. In doing so, he has become known as one of
the finest writers of Southwestern literature. As one
reviewer expressed it, nIt would be difficult to find a
writer better qualified to retell this national saga.”!
Like every one else,Harvey Fergusson was partly the
product of his forebears (who included some very interesting
people) and partly of his environment.
In many ways, as he himself acknowledges, he was most
like his maternal grandfather, Franz Huning, who came
from Halle, Germany. When Mr. Huning came to this country
in IS48, he was a quiet, shy, studious youth of twenty-
one. He much preferred his books and his dreams to any
1 Harrison Smith, review of In Those Days, Boston
Transcript, March 6, 1929
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other company* He loved adventure and had always longed
to see the world* He resented all restraints and was a
strong individualist* All of these traits reappeared in his
grandson Harvey*
After his arrival in the United States, he lived the
sort of life which absorbed the interest of his grandson
and stimulated him to write* Mr* Huning spent some time
in St* Louis, where he was fascinated by the confusion,
the energy and the glamor of all these strange new people*
Mr# Fergusson describes this place in Wolf Song as Mr*
Huning probably saw it*
Corncrackers in homespun and high boots
geehawed their mule teams in cluttered muddy
streets, cracked eight foot whips and squirted
tobacco juice from bulging jaws* Traders full
of corn liquor and easy money swelled around in
boiled shirts, long-tailed coats of bright color
and beaver hats big as buckets, with rings on
their fingers and heavy gold chains across their
gaudy vests* They rolled big cigars in their
mouths and treated each other noisily in reeking
bars. Women in bright ballooning silks rolled by
in phaetons and coaches*
After listening to many exciting tales of the trip
to the Southwest, he joined one of the wagon trains and
worked his way as a bullwhacker to Albuquerque, which
! was to be his home until his death*
::t
$
; 2Harvey Fergusson, Wolf Song in Followers of the
Sun (New York, Alfred A* Knopf , 1936); p. "19
1
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