The Ox-Bow Incident

by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Wallace Stegner (Introduction)

Set in 1885, The Ox-Bow Incident is a searing and realistic portrait of frontier life and mob violence in the American West. First published in 1940, it focuses on the lynching of three innocent men and the tragedy that ensues when law and order are abandoned. The result is an emotionally powerful, vivid, and unforgettable re-creation of the Western novel, which Clark transmuted into a universal story about good and evil, individual and community, justice and human nature. As Wallace Stegner writes, [Clark's] theme was civilization, and he recorded, indelibly, its first steps in a new country.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, Literature, American, Novels

290 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

Walter Van Tilburg Clark was an American novelist, short story writer, and educator. He ranks as one of Nevada's most distinguished literary figures of the 20th century and is known primarily for his novels, his one volume of stories, as well as his uncollected short stories. As a writer, he taught himself to use the familiar materials of the western saga to explore the human psyche and to raise deep philosophical issues.

Reviews

[Henry Avila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ostensibly an ordinary western about murder and cattle rustling in Nevada the year 1885 , many miles outside the city of Reno around the tiny settlement, Bridger's Wells a cow town, with a vengeful posse tracking down the guilty parties. You would be wrong...this is so much more, what is justice and the requirements needed in order to achieve that elusive goal. This novel from 1940 and the Henry Fonda film version made in 1943, are a rare occurrence when both the book and the movie become classics....A young rider, really a boy, confused, scared, brings bad news to town, Lawrence Kinkaid, a very liked man has been slain by cattle thieves, what to do? This shameful situation has to be corrected immediately and Sheriff Risley a honest, capable lawman, is a distant ways off. The men of the village cannot let the criminals escape, besmirch their reputations, show the rest of the silver state how competent they are here... Led by former Confederate major Tetley a man noted for his unbending behavior, with an iron hand, knows right from wrong he says, nothing is gray, either black or white, men like sheep follow his stern , never gentle...
orders, however his own weak son Gerald hates him.The town drunk Monty Smith had stirred the mob to a fever pitch which was easily accomplished, anger is thick as molasses in Canby's smoke- filled, liquor smelling saloon, felt by all and good friends Art Croft, Gil Carter have questions though. The two cowboys have just left the harsh range , after many long, lonely weeks , tired , thirsty, hungry, dirty , wanting
excitement, see other humans; not sure of the guilt of the three killers soon captured after a tough ride in the mountains as the snow falls, but they came along with a large group of 28. Gil likes to drink in fact, get drunk and fight, win or lose he strangely feels better, afterwards,
Art is quiet, thinks things over especially just before the hangings, but men are cowards , afraid to be different and few challenge the uneasy proceedings. A tough end , yet needed to tell a story which necessitates it, how the human race must stand up and not let justice be thwarted. This little gem has a lot to offer, written at the start of the Second World War and warns people of the evil in men's hearts, no one should be intimidated , but fight for their freedom..."The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance." Nevertheless the public has a short memory and requires constant reminders...

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

IL BRANCO



Anche la letteratura di genere ha i suoi grandi libri. Anche la letteratura western.
Come questo, uscito nel 1940 (e solo due anni dopo lo strepitoso film diretto da William Wellman, regista non abbastanza riconosciuto).
In italiano il titolo originale The Ox-Bow Incident - dove Ox-Bow indica il luogo e “incident” indica l’evento che in quel luogo accade – è diventato Alba fatale (presumo che il titolo italiano del film abbia fatto da traino a quello italiano del romanzo. Anche in inglese il film ha preso il titolo del libro).


Henry Fonda e il reverendo.

La storia è presto detta: ci sono tre uomini accusati di furto di bestiame (all’epoca reato gravissimo) e dell’omicidio dell’allevatore al quale appartenevano gli animali. Si sa che stanno per passare un valico di montagna (Ox-Bow, per l’appunto), li si reputa in fuga: in tutta fretta si organizza una posse.
Se è facile intuire presto che i tre sono in realtà innocenti, io fino all’ultimo momento ho creduto che qualcosa sarebbe successo a evitare il linciaggio (impiccagione). Invece la loro innocenza si scopre dopo che sono stati ammazzati.


L’albero ideale per una bella impiccagione.

Whisky. Due bicchierini e lascia la bottiglia. Frase iconica che funge da inizio del romanzo e del film. E quando la pronuncia, con la sua inconfondibile voce, Henry Fonda, grande attore che considerava proprio questo forse il suo miglior film, si era già fatto riconoscere dal mio occhio, per quanto in campo lungo, per la sua inconfondibile camminata.
Può la letteratura di genere, western nel caso specifico, dispiegando i cliché della letteratura d’intrattenimento, trasformarsi in racconto morale, filosofico, affrontare un problema serie e profondo, affrontare massimi sistemi continuando a essere divertente e godibile?
In questo caso può. Ma non credo che sia certo l’unico, l’eccezione che confermerebbe una regola che per me non esiste.


Dana Andrews e Anthony Quinn, due delle vittime (il capo e il messicano).

Uno degli orrori su cui è costruita la storia del “selvaggio west” (e non solo quella) è la pratica del linciaggio. Dietro la quale si nasconde una perversa forma di presunta giustizia: la giustizia della gente, la legge del branco, la giustizia fai-da-te. L’arbitrio scambiato per giustizia.
E su quanta violenza è costruita la storia degli Stati Uniti, la cosiddetta terra delle opportunità (all’apparenza prima, seconda, terza…)? Qualcuno ha detto che la violenza è parte della cultura americana tanto quanto la torta di ciliegie.



Van Tilburg Clark divide il suo romanzo a metà, dedicando la prima alla formazione della banda punitiva, la posse, mettendo subito in mostra un raro talento di tratteggio: l’ex ufficiale confederato che si pone da solo a comando del branco in nome dei suoi vecchi gradi e per l’occasione rispolvera la vecchia divisa – suo figlio, che il padre considera una femminuccia, e che si porta dietro per dargli una lezione educativa (con quale doppio risultato!) – l’uomo di colore che funge da uomo di chiesa, chiamato dagli altri reverendo – il protagonista, Carter, con il suo amico, che si aggregano perché in quanto stranieri inizialmente vengono confusi per possibili colpevoli, e vogliono quindi dimostrare la loro assoluta innocenza – l’unica donna, sorta di Calamity Jane a cui manca una svastica tatuata (da considerare che il libro uscì in piena epoca nazista) – l’uomo che vorrebbe aspettare il ritorno dello sceriffo, vorrebbe lasciare il caso al vero uomo di legge – l’ubriacone molesto che sintetizza il punto di vista dell’uomo della strada, disposto a credere a chi offre di più…



La seconda parte è l’arresto dei tre, trovati accampati a dormire: un vecchio mezzo rincoglionito, un messicano (colpevole ideale per il solo fatto di non essere integralmente “bianco”), e un allevatore che è il capo e datore di lavoro degli altri due.
Le spiegazioni cadono nel vuoto: il branco vuole sangue, agogna alla punizione definitiva, la morte.
Per salvare le apparenze, per far credere che si sta agendo secondo legge e democrazia, viene richiesta una votazione: a opporsi solo una manciata, tra cui Carter, il reverendo e il figlio dell’ex soldato.
Si spera che succeda qualcosa a fermare l’orribile arbitrio. Ma invece lo sceriffo appare quando ormai è troppo tardi: i tre penzolano già dalla corda.



Martin, il capo dei presunti tre colpevoli, in attesa dell’esecuzione chiede di scrivere una lettera a moglie e figli. E qui, nel film, si concentra la riflessione morale (il romanzo ha chiaramente più spazio e tempo per disquisire):
Un uomo non può farsi giustizia da solo, e impiccare qualcuno senza ferire il mondo intero. Perché non sta infrangendo solo una legge, ma tutte quante, tutte le leggi. La legge è molto più delle parole scritte in un libro, dei giudici, avvocati e sceriffi che sono assunti per applicarla. È tutto quello che la gente ha appreso sulla giustizia, quello che è giusto e sbagliato. È la coscienza vera dell’umanità. Non ci può essere ‘civiltà’ se la gente non ha coscienza. Perché se le persone riescono a sentire dio, come possono riuscirci se non attraverso la loro coscienza? E cos’è la coscienza di ciascuno se non un frammento della coscienza di tutti coloro che sono vissuti?



Il film, in bianco e nero, venne ritenuto molto rischioso e per questo, per farlo costare meno, girato interamente negli studi di Hollywood, è invece un western grandioso, di quelli da recuperare. Henry Fonda ha poco più di trent’anni, risulta particolarmente giovane, e anche la sua recitazione sembra giovanile, ribalda come ancora non la conoscevo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr2ZT...

[Diane Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, just Wow! I thought I was sitting down to read a western classic about a hanging, but what I got instead was a study of human nature, moral cowardice, and how easy it is to allow evil to happen when men believe that following a bully who chooses to ignore the facts or listen to reason gives them an excuse to do violence in the name of justice. This book may have been written in 1940, but it's descriptions of men's actions in the guise of avenging a wrong is relevant since the dawn of time and up until the present day.

This book gets five stars not because I enjoyed it. I didn't. And not because I liked any of the characters. I didn't. And not because I think that reading books like this will keep things like this from happening. I don't. But because, someday, it may be necessary for me to speak up for some obscure person or cause, and remembering this story will give me the courage to do so.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

REREAD

My friend Phyllis wrote in her review of E.L. Doctorow's Welcome to Hard Times that “this is the western for all those readers who don’t think they like westerns.” Another friend, Diane, commented on her own review of the book that “[i]t’s a western for people who don’t like westerns.”

I agree. However, the great thing about Doctorow’s only western is that it is also a book for readers who love westerns. And there are others.

Charles Portis’s only western, True Grit, falls into that category as does John Williams’s Butcher’s Crossing, his only foray into the American West. Douglas C. Jones and Elmer Kelton specialized in the western genre, but they nevertheless wrote a few books that non-western aficionados could appreciate – as did A.B. Guthrie who wrote The Big Sky, The Way West (winner of a Pulitzer Prize), and These Thousand Hills, which collectively told the story of the American West from mountain man, to western migrant, to cattle rancher.

Then there is Larry McMurtry. He, like Jones and Kelton, specialized in novels about the American West, but it is safe to say that it was his epic story of the cattle frontier, Lonesome Dove (winner of a Pulitzer Prize), that more than any other western ever published captured the imagination of people who did not ordinarily read westerns.

The reason that all readers can enjoy these books is because they are literary westerns, meaning that they are historical fiction that happens to be set in the American West.

One more novel that needs to be added to that list is The Ox-Bow Incident.

In this, his debut novel (1940), Walter Van Tilburg Clark set out to write a typical western story, one that had been told many times before, but he wanted to rewrite the formula that popular novelists such as Zane Grey and Max Brand had used with great success, a formula that had placed limitations on how the story of the West could be told.

Therefore, he wrote a story about vigilantism and the rush to carry out what passed as frontier justice and law and order in the minds of the vigilantes, which in the case of the “incident” in the title, culminates in a tragic miscarriage of justice.

The result is a realistic psychological study of character and morality and the hesitancy of bystanders, including the narrator, to intervene even when they suspect that a tragic wrong is about to occur. In short, it is a thinking-person’s western.

The critics wrote positive reviews about this gritty, nontraditional western that broke the mold of earlier revenge westerns, stories in which white-hatted heroes rode to last-second rescues. In fact, there are no heroes in Clark’s book, at least none with the ability to win a stand-off against a lynch mob.

Clifton Fadiman wrote in The New Yorker that The Ox-Bow Incident was his

unwavering choice for the year’s finest first novel. It has many of the elements of an old-fashioned horse opera – monosyllabic cowpunchers, cattle rustlers, a Mae West lady, barroom brawls, shootings, lynchings, a villainous Mexican. But it bears about the same relation to an ordinary western that The Maltese Falcon does to a hack detective story. Not to put a fine point on it, I think it’s sort of what you might call a masterpiece.

I agree. I also think that Walter Van Tilburg Clark belongs on my shelf for "Forgotten Writers Who Deserve to be Remembered."

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Philosophical Western Novel

The Western genre in novels and films was once rejected by many people as formulaic and superficial. The genre suffered from these traits and from over-exposure, but it also produced many fine literary and cinematographic works. Among these works in both novel and film is "The Ox-Bow Incident". The 1940 book was the first novel of Walter Van Tilburg Clark (1909 -- 1971) who lived in Nevada for much of his life. In 1943, Clark's novel was adapted into a film of the same name directed by William Wellman and starring Henry Fonda. This review is about the novel.

Clark's novel is a story about the nature of justice, and the dangers of mob action and jumping to conclusions. It is set in 1885 in the fictitious small town of Bridger's Wells, Nevada. The novel is told in the first person by Art Croft who with his friend Gil Carter ride into town one afternoon after hunkering down over the long winter. At the local saloon, the two cowboys learn that there has been a cattle rustling and a murder of a local rancher. As outsiders, they are initially viewed with some suspicion. An effort quickly develops by the town residents and the ranchers to organize a posse to bring the rustlers and murderers to justice. Croft and Carter reluctantly join in.

The pacing of this novel varies and makes for sometimes difficult reading. Following the opening chapter in the bar, the novel slows down as the townspeople gather around to discuss the situation and decide what to do. A large group of differentiated characters are introduced, making for slow reading. Different points of view develop, with some people wanting to form a lynch mob to catch and kill the alleged rustlers and murderers while others urge a more restrained approach. Among the latter is the elderly owner of a general store, Davies, who tries to dissuade his fellows by discussing the imperative character of justice. The town judge is at first reluctant to become involved but he too ultimately tries to dissuade the posse and potential lynch mob. He asks the citizens to bring back the alleged wrongdoers for trial rather than taking the law into their own hands.

Many eloquent passages in this book discuss the nature and majesty of law. An example is the following speech by Davies to his fellows.

"Law is more than the words that put it on the books; law is more than any decisions that may be made from it; law is more than the particular code of it stated at any one time or in any one place or nation; more than any man, lawyer or judge, sheriff or jailer, who may represent it. True law, the code of justice, the essence of our sensations of right and wrong, is the conscience of society. It has taken thousands of years to develop, and it is the greatest, the most distinguishing quality which has evolved with mankind. None of man's temples, none of his religions, none of his weapons, his tools, his arts, his sciences, nothing else he has grown to, is so great a thing as his justice, his sense of justice. The true law is something in itself; it is the spirit of the moral nature of man; it is an existence apart, like God, and as worthy of worship as God. If we can touch God at all, where do we touch him save in the conscience? And what is the conscience of any man save his little fragment of the conscience of all men in all time?"

In spite of the cautions, the posse proceeds forward with 27 men and one woman under the direction of Tetley, a Confederate veteran. Tetley's son, a bookish and reflective individual, also comes along at the command of his father but disapproves of the venture. As the posse moves along, many of its members talk among themselves with further reflections on what they propose to do.

The posse ultimately comes across three individuals asleep in the snow around a campfire. They are brought in, summarily questioned, and brutally hanged with objections and opposition from a few of the posse including Davies and the younger Tetley. Almost immediately thereafter, the innocence of the condemned men is established. The town sheriff condemns the action but pointedly refuses to identify the perpetrators, thus allowing those in the posse to return and to pursue their lives unpunished.

Upon its release, "The Ox-Bow Incident" was seen as a warning about fascism. The questions the book poses about the nature of responsibility, community, justice, and mob action transcend any particular time or political movement. The actions of the protagonists of the novel and their many discussions at the various stages of the story offer many opportunities for reflection and discussion. The setting of the book in the Old West, with the growing town and the majestic scenery are integral to the novel.

I took from the story a lesson about the dangers of mob action and of the need for individual reflection and thought in the middle of provocation, qualities that the book suggests are rare.

This thoughtful book deserves to be read and will dispel many of the prejudices some readers may have about the Western genre. The book is readily available individually and is also included in an upcoming Library of America anthology, "The Western: Four Classic Novels of the 1940s and 50s."

Robin Friedman

[Andy Marr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was slightly too fussy and contained far, far too many dialogue tags, but the story's a goodun, and a guaranteed winner for any fan of Westerns.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most men are more afraid of being thought cowards than of anything else, and a lot more afraid of being thought physical cowards than moral ones.

Let me say that this book will wrench your soul right out of you, and mainly because you fear deep within yourself that you would not have the courage to stand against the mob and stop a miscarriage of justice, that you would be too afraid to be the voice in the wilderness, that you might be more afraid for your own skin than worried for the preservation of a principle that matters more than all of us.

This is a western, set in the days of cowboys and posses, but it is not really that. It is a diatribe on the frailties of human beings, their ability to be manipulated by stronger, bullying voices. It is about the inability to choose the moral high ground when the mob is against you. It is about being the mob, being swept away by group frenzy.

I'm slow with a new idea, and want to think it over alone, where I'm sure it's the idea and not the man that's getting me.

But, very few do think about this idea, most of them are just following the man, buying the rhetoric, swimming in the illusion of power. Sadly, this group of men is going to be living for a lifetime with the decision of a moment.

Along with the moral lesson which you cannot escape in this book, you are treated to some of the most vivid descriptive passages I have ever come across in literature. I knew both the physical makeup and the moral character of every single person Clark depicts in the story. I felt the wind and the snow and the tightness of the pass. I felt the grip in my throat and my chest as the moment of truth grew closer and closer.

Every moral premise is presented in such a way that it never feels like preaching or like it is existing outside the context of the story. The moral dilemma is the fabric around which the story is woven, but the story exists in the outside, wider world, as much as in the moment of this occurrence.

"If we go out and hang two or three men, without doing what the law says, forming a posse and bringing the men for trial, then by the same law, we're not officers of justice, but due to be hanged ourselves."
"And who will hang us?" Winder wanted to know.
"Maybe nobody." Davies admitted. "Then our crime's worse than a murderer's. His act puts him outside the law, but keeps the law intact. Ours would weaken the law."

A great beginning to a new year.

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have read To Kill a Mockingbird, this book is just as great on a similar topic at a different place and time.

Western but not "a western" by what we expect now of that genre. It is a study of men and how they relate to each other and what the "pack mentality" can accomplish.

Relentless in its momentum, it takes us through 24 hours from the point where two young "cow punchers" come into town after a long isolated winter. They learn that a murder has taken place out on the range and that someone wants to form a posse to get the guys "who done it." Walter Clark gives us a host of characters, most drawn with deftness and nuance.

There is not a cliche in this powerful and timely book about men and justice. As with Harper Lee, this is Clark's sole novel, the story he had to tell. Be prepared for one of the most memorable books you will ever read.

[Lori Keeton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most men are more afraid of being thought cowards than of anything else, and a lot more afraid of being thought physical cowards than moral ones. There are a lot of loud arguments to cover moral cowardice, but even an animal will know if you’re scared. If rarity is worth, then moral courage is a lot higher quality than physical courage; but, excepting diamonds and hard cash, there aren’t many who take to anything because of its rarity.

What would you do if faced with a decision to follow the majority or go out on your own and stand up for what you believe is the right thing to do? I think that most of us would hope that we had enough courage to stick to our guns, so to speak, and speak up and try to make our beliefs heard above the others who are usually louder. It’s not an easy situation to be put in and none of us really know what we would do until we are smack dab in the middle of it. That is just what was happening in this story. A group of men make a decision to form a posse/mob and go after a few men who may or may not have been rustling cattle and murdered a man they knew.

From the start, I knew that this was going to be a stellar read. I was hooked by the utterly vivid descriptions of every character introduced (and there are quite a few), by the beauty of the western Nevada mountains. Clark has not just written a typical western here, he has elevated it to one that makes you think and gets at your inner core. There are scenes within this novel that will never be removed from my mind and the feeling I had when I read them will never leave me. This book is that affecting.

What I found most appealing was the way Clark easily wove his message throughout the dialogue. Discussions on the morality of men abusing power and what it means to abide by the law - that essence of our sensations of right and wrong, is the conscience of society.
We knew exactly how each and every cowboy felt and what he believed whether it was right or not. We knew who the ring leaders were and who was just going along and we knew who was brave enough to try to stop a grave injustice. But the most profound lesson is in the fact that no matter what form of injustice occurs, there are going to be those people who just pretend to hear the facts or won’t listen to sense or rational thought and just give in to conformity which leads to vengefulness in the name of justice.

I highly recommend this!

[Tara Rock · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was far away from a "feel good" story; a very painful one in fact. Another Goodreads friend stated that it was required reading in her High School and I hope it is still being read. Commission and omission will stay with me.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ox-Bow Incident is a story about how a group of people can make bad decisions as a mob which can lead to deathly consequences.When Walter van Tilburg Clark wrote this novel, he thought through all of the moral implications of the actions of the characters.

He says, “The soul of a nation or race, grows the same way the soul of a man does.”

The characters represent many sides, a range of agreement, or just going along, or opposition to the behavior of the group.

These philosophical implications of the moral choices facing the characters are exemplified by an early paragraph wherein Davies, a character trying to prevent a tragedy, speaks about the the law.

“Law is more than the words that put it on the books; law is more than any decisions that may be made from it; law is more than the particular code of it stated, at any one time, or in any one place or nation; more than any man, lawyer or judge, sheriff or jailer, who may represent it. True law, the code of justice, the essence of our sensations of right and wrong is the conscience of society. It has taken thousands of years to develop, and it is the greatest the most distinguishing quality which has evolved with mankind none of man’s temples. None of his religions, none of his weapons,his tools, his arts, his sciences, nothing else he has grown to, is so great a thing as his justice, his sense of justice. The true law is something in itself; it is the spirit of the moral nature of man; it is an existence apart, like God, and As worthy of worship as God. If we can touch God at all, where do we touch him save in the conscience and what is the conscience of any man save his little fragment of the conscience of all men in all time?”

If I lost you there, my apologies. But this book requires one to think about what the author is trying to say, so if you are looking for a light easy read, this ain’t it, my friends.

Davies decides that fancy words about law are not going to sway the crowd.

“Most men are more afraid of being thought cowards than anything else, and a lot more afraid of being thought physical cowards than moral ones. There are a lot of loud arguments to cover moral cowardice, but even an animal will know if you’re scared. If rarity is worth, then, moral courage is a lot higher quality than physical courage; but, accepting diamonds and hard cash, there aren’t many who take to anything because if it’s rarity.”

It is not all philosophical writing, though. I enjoyed how the author set a scene or described a situation.

“We all hugged to the cliff side of the road, not being able to see the drop off side clearly. I was on the inside, and sometimes my foot scraped the wall, and sometimes Gil and I clicked stirrups, he had pulled over so far. His horse couldn’t sense the edge and didn’t like it, and kept twisting around, trying to face it.”

I also appreciated his sense of humor when elaborately describing each unique character, in exacting physical and personality traits. “She wasn’t given to thinking very far, but she did a lot of intelligent feeling.”

There are quotable moments throughout the book. This one, for example, is said by one of the characters.

“I suppose I think as much about God as the next man who isn’t in the business. I spend a lot of time alone. But I’d seen, yes and done, some things that made me feel that if God was worried about me, and it was only in large numbers and in the course of time.”

I think this book is more than a Western, and should be considered a classic piece of literature. It presents a scene of moral choices, making the reader consider multiple points of view along the road travelled to its conclusion. It is a book of ideas that could be applied to more modern situations of group behavior.

It was a great way to start the year 2023 with a five star reading experience!

[Connie G · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ox-Bow Incident is a gem that portrays good and evil, and the danger of mob mentality. Cowboys Art Croft and Gil Carter ride into a small town in Nevada after spending the 1885 winter on the range. They head to Canby's saloon where they hear the news that rustlers have been stealing cattle, and a local man has been murdered.

The men in the town want to take justice into their own hands, and begin to organize a vigilante posse. The storeowner, Davies, and Judge Tyler warn the group that any possible rustlers should be brought back alive to stand trial. Some hotheads think that the court system is too slow and ineffectual, and any rustlers should be immediately hung. They set out with an ex-Confederate officer leading the posse.

People in a group can be swayed into doing things in the heat of the moment that they might question as individuals. A lynch gang doesn't really judge, but acts on what it's already decided to do with each man afraid to disagree with the rest of the posse.

The Ox-Bow Incident has wonderful character studies that make the reader ask what qualities make a man a person to be respected. There are also good descriptions of traveling through a snowstorm on horseback in an isolated area of Nevada in search for the rustlers. Clark's book is much more than a Western story since so many ethical questions are woven through the plot.

[Lesle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ox-Bow Incident was based on a true incident that happened in Montana in the 1880s. It could have happened anywhere in the old West.

In 1885 in Bridger's Wells, Nevada, cattle country, some men managed to be elusive and cattle disappeared. The townsmen decide to get together for justice and form a posse to find these thieves.
Over a 24 hr period. three men were given no rights, judgment abounds and were brutally treated by intimidated men that made a quick decision. These men did not want to be left out of the majority, doubts or not. They did not want to appear to be timid or cowardish. They are manipulated by the situation of angry men, speeches that want them riled up. Five vote against it and some just sit by and watch it take place though they have a distaste for it.

A story of good, like Martin and evil, like Tetley and how a few regret their decision and it haunts them afterwards, causing some to come to a painful end.

Clark descriptions of every little detail helped paint the scene of characters and settings. He made you think about how people process and put those thoughts into action and once it is put into motion it is simply too crazy to put a stop to it.

[Tom Mathews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Often mistaken as 'a western', Clark's 1940 masterpiece is far from it. Although loosely disguised as a a western, it is really an in-depth study of the dichotomy between justice and vengeance. It also takes a hard look at mob rule and why people are so reluctant to behave as individuals at a time where much of the world was in the thrall of charismatic tyrants.

Now that I've thoroughly bored you with my literary critique of this excellent book, forget everything I said and just read it. You will be entertained and will come away from it a better person. Sorry, no gunfighters, though.

My thanks to the folks at the Catching up on Classics group for giving me the opportunity to read and discuss this and many other fine books.

[Jonathan Briggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Assuming you had some reason for doing so, you could dig up all kinds of critical commentary claiming that Walter Van Tilburg Clark's Western classic "The Ox-Bow Incident" transcends the genre. "Transcends the genre." What does that mean? That's one of those dumb things critics like to say when they accidentally like something they're not supposed to. "Wait a minute, this is really good. It can't be Western/scifi/horror/etc.; therefore, it (music swells) TRANSCENDS THE GENRE!!!!" Nonsense. "The Ox-Bow Incident" doesn't transcend the genre. It's a fine example OF the genre and what good genre writing can accomplish, though it's not the finest example. "Ox-Bow" is a short book, but it still feels about 50 pages too long. It meanders and repeats itself. I'd like to see an alternate-universe version of the book, written by Elmore Leonard or Joe Lansdale, something more economical, something sharper-edged and snappier. Clark kills too much time lovingly describing every posy of the field. He didn't have to transcribe every word in the seemingly neverending debate over the rights and wrongs, ins and outs, yeas or nays, and backs and forths of a ranchers' necktie party. And his vigilante posse could stand to lose a handful of characters who do little but clutter the trail. Still, if flowery passages and levels of political allegory are what it takes to wrangle critical favor for a lowly genre work, then write em, cowboy.

[Algernon · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a lovely, chill, pine-smelling valley, as lonely as you could want.

The Ox-Bow is a charming place somewhere high up in the Arizona Mountains, empty for most of the year and used rarely as a resting place by the stagecoach or by passing cowboys. In the spring of 1885 this little known meadow is witness to a lynching.
Twenty-eight angry men set out from the cattle town of Bridger’s Wells to hunt down and to deliver a piece of frontier ‘justice’ to the alleged rustlers who have stolen cattle from the range and left a man dead in a ditch. One among them, Arthur Davies, is there to convince the others to follow the true law and bring the men back to town to be judged properly.
Can his arguments convince these rough settlers and cowboys to stop and think about what they are doing? Or will they cling to the myth of the West and the righteousness of the vigilante who takes the law into his own hands?

Wallace Stegner, a writer who sits very high in my literary pantheon, writes the introduction of this debut novel from mr. Clark and helpfully underlines the true significance of the effort to define civilization in opposition to the populist trends that romanticize the brutality of the Westward expansion.

To Signet and Signet readers, it is a novel of excitement and suspense and nervous trigger fingers. They do not read it as the report of a failure of individual and social conscience and nerve, an account of wrong sanctioned and forced by the false ethics of a barbarous folk culture.

Reading about some remarks from Henry Fonda, who rates his role in the movie adaptation of the novel as his all-time favourite, alongside the “Grapes of Wrath”, my recollection goes instead to another movie that treats the same subject as a court drama: “Twelve Angry Men”. This memory was also triggered by early efforts from Arthur Davies to delay or stop the vigilante crowd from setting out in pursuit until the law , represented by the local Sheriff and Judge, can take over. Davies argues that it is better to let a hundred guilty people go rather than condemn an innocent one, but such arguments are decades ahead of their times in Bridger’s Wells.

“If we go out and hang two or three men, without doing what the law says, forming a posse and bringing the men in for trial, then by the same law, we’re not officers of justice, but due to be hanged ourselves.”
“And who’ll hang us?” Winder wanted to know.
“Maybe nobody,” Davies admitted. “Then our crime’s worse than a murderer’s. His act puts him outside the law, but keeps the law intact. Ours would weaken the law.”

The novel is narrated by Art Croft, a cowboy who comes down to town with his pal Gil Carter after a long winter spent on the range. They are caught in the events as they sit and drink and play cards in Canby’s saloon, a place where suspicion and male posturing and barely contained violence set out the mood for the drama even before the cattle rustling and the murder are discovered. Art and Gil feel the wrongness of the mood right from the start, but they are unwilling to confront the loud voices of hatred for fear of being considered cowards or weak.

Thinking about it afterwards I was surprised that Bartlett succeeded so easily. None of the men he was talking to owned any cattle or any land. None of them had any property but their horses and their outfits. None of them were even married, and the kind of women they got a chance to know weren’t likely to be changed by what a rustler would do to them. Some out of that many were bound to have done a little rustling on their own, and maybe one or two had even killed a man.

Privately, Art Croft agrees with Davies, and would like to see the Judge and the Sheriff take over and absolve him of responsibility for what is going on, but the instinct to be a part of the crowd is stronger.

Then he said a lynch gang always acts in a panic, and has to get angry enough to overcome its panic before it can kill, so it doesn’t ever really judge, but just acts on what it’s already decided to do, each man afraid to disagree with the rest.

Another accurate and disturbing observation of the author, put in the mouth of Davies, is that any such crowd of angry people need a focus, a leader, before it acts. Such a leader, and a self-appointed one at that, is the rancher Tetley, a former Confederate officer who doesn’t have any direct relation with the victims, but seizes the opportunity to inflict some damage without repercussions. Tetley is a bully, as are some of the other ring-leaders of the gang, and is particularly vicious towards his teenage son Gerald, a sensitive young man who abhors violence on principle.

“Only two things mean anything to Tetley,” he said, “power and cruelty. He can’t feel quiet and gentle things any more; and he can’t feel pity, and he can’t feel guilt.”

The scene is set, the actors have been introduced, and a storm is approaching the cattle town as the twenty-eight men set out towards the high mountain pass that leads to the Ox-Bow meadow. Darkness and freezing cold and angry voices combine to instil a sense of doom that explodes in senseless violence as the possy meets the stagecoach coming from the other side of the pass, before they even come across three strangers and a herd of cows in Ox-Bow.

It’s quite easy to see why this has been sold by the marketing teams of the publishers as an action / adventure genre novel. Walter Clark is a great storyteller, capable of fleshing out a character and a scene with a few well-chosen words, the emotions and the actions are convincing and hard-hitting. Maybe the only exception is Arthur Davies, whose eloquence on the subject of justice is a little too studied, too articulated for such a rough setting. But even Davies is saved in the end by his scruples and by his willingness to self analysis in the aftermath of the Incident.

I knew Tetley could be stopped then. I knew you could all be turned by one man who would face Tetley with a gun. Maybe he wouldn’t even have needed a gun, but I told myself he would. I told myself he would to face Tetley, because Tetley was mad to see those three men hang, and to see Gerald made to hang one of them. I told myself you’d have to stop him with fear, like any animal from a kill.”

The subject of lynching and of standing up to bullies before they assume power over you is I believe as relevant today as it was in 1885, or in 1940 (the year the novel was published and when Hitler was already a real concern). Consider only the fact that 2022 is the year that the US Congress took a vote on a law that specifically prohibits lynching, a law that was introduced more than hundred years ago. Consider also the case of the young man who was recently killed by vigilantes while jogging through a suburban neighbourhood.

In Bridger’s Wells, the only open and unreserved support Arthur Davies receives comes from the town’s only coloured man, an odd jobs pauper known as Sparks.

“Ah saw mah own brothah lynched, Mistah Croft,” he said stiffly. “Ah was just a little fella when I saw that, but sometimes ah still wakes up from dreamin’ about it.”

Most parts of the world, you don’t need to witness a crime in order to know it is wrong. Walter Clark is probably trying to mark in his first novel the transition from the law of the gun to the law of the land. In my opinion, he has done a masterful job, one that transcends genre limitations and speaks truth across generations.

True law, the code of justice, the essence of our sensations of right and wrong, is the conscience of society. It has taken thousands of years to develop, and it is the greatest, the most distinguishing quality which has evolved with mankind. None of man’s temples, none of his religions, none of his weapons, his tools, his sciences, nothing else he has grown to, is so great as his justice, his sense of justice. The true law is something in itself; it is the spirit of the moral nature of man; it is an existence apart, like God, and as worthy of worship as God. If we can touch God at all, where do we touch him save in the conscience? And what is the conscience of any man save his little fragment of the conscience of all men in all time?

[Albus Eugene Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Up patriots to arms!

Clark scrisse questo libro tra il ’37 e il ’39, quando l’ascesa in Germania del Terzo Reich aveva già prodotto i suoi effetti nefasti (1933, rogo dei libri all’università di Berlino; 1935, emanazione delle leggi di Norimberga contro gli ebrei; 1938, la Notte dei cristalli 1939, invasione della Cecoslovacchia e della Polonia).
L’intento dell’autore era quello di creare un parallelo tra le brutalità e sopraffazioni commesse in Europa dal regime nazista e la cieca violenza delle impiccagioni del selvaggio West, per dimostrare come, in qualsiasi luogo e in qualsiasi tempo, un potere senza scrupoli possa spingere una massa (o un intero popolo) alla violenza più cieca nei confronti di minoranze o di singoli individui.
Qualche anno dopo, Battiato canterà: «Up patriots to arms... La fantasia dei popoli che è giunta fino a noi / Non viene dalle stelle / Alla riscossa stupidi che i fiumi sono in piena / Potete stare a galla / E non è colpa mia se esistono carnefici / Se esiste l'imbecillità ...».
Clark crea una storia in apparenza banale, uguale a tante altre già narrate. Nel 1885 nel Nevada, un gruppo di cittadini della cow town di Bridger's Wells si riunisce fuori dal saloon e, in assenza dello sceriffo, forma una posse per acciuffare e, naturalmente, impiccare dei presunti assassini e ladri di bestiame. Qualcuno si adopererà però per dissuadere gli esagitati dal farsi giustizia da sé...
Nella caotica, tragica e violenta storia del Far West e della Frontiera, gli episodi di sopraffazione, omicidio e sterminio (nativi, neri, ispanici, scegliete voi...) non si contano.
Fucili e pisytole la fecero ovviamente da padrone, ma il patibolo e l’impiccagione svolsero un ruolo altrettanto significativo, soprattutto nella “rappresentazione” dell’amministrazione della “Giustizia”. Poi, se c’era fretta... andavano bene anche tre metri di corda e un albero...
A Fort Smith, una cittadina posta sul confine tra Oklahoma e Arkansas, il giudice Isaac Charles “Hanging Judge” Parker, tra il 1873 e il 1896, condannò all’impiccagione 160 persone.
Il cinema Western ha spesso rappresentato la “practice of hanging” del selvaggio West. E in alcuni casi, le immagini sono indimenticabili.
La cicatrice sul collo di Eastwood/Cooper in Impiccalo più in alto (Hang 'Em High) o L'albero degli impiccati (The Hanging Tree) o ancora le facce col naso all’insù durante l'impiccagione di Steve McQueen/Tom Horn o l’impiccagione di Jonnie Mack voluta dal Senatore Tadlock in La Via Del West (The Way West) o... basta, l’elenco è davvero lungo.
Ma torniamo alla nostra storia. Nel 1943, Wellman dirige un western, che ripercorre pressoché fedelmente lo sviluppo dell’azione narrato dal libro di Clark. Solo alcuni aspetti del finale si discostano un po’ dal libro. Nel cast figurano interpreti di rango: Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Harry Morgan, Frank Conroy, Anthony Quinn.
Alla conclusione delle riprese, the lieutenant Henry Fonda si arruola nella U.S. Navy... “Well, I don’t want to be here, I wanna be out there. I’m sick and tired of being a lousy spectator.”
Insomma, se vi ho incuriosito tanto da andare a dare un’occhiata al libro, bene. Se invece qualcuno volesse leggere un commento ben scritto e ricco di spunti di riflessione, consiglio di tornare a... questa casella https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Però se poi, con molta probabilità, correrete a spendere i vostri soldi per procurarvi una copia del libro, non prendetevela con me.......

[Paula W · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would like to congratulate anyone who has read this book and found the ability to write a review. I can’t, other than to say it is a masterpiece. 5 big BIG stars.

[Mr. Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ox-Bow Incident is a classic in the truest sense of the word. It is a timeless book that speaks to our common humanity and remains just as relevant today as the day that it was written. It reminds us that no matter how much our world has changed – no matter how sophisticated our technology – we humans have changed very little.

As I read The Ox-Bow Incident it gradually dawned on me that this book had a message. This was shockingly refreshing to me. I generally read a lot of what my mom had once characterized as “trash” – science fiction, fantasy, horror. These books were filled with dragons, zombies, lost treasures and packed full of adventure. All fun, but not really pushing the reader very much. The Ox-Bow Incident was a dramatic departure. It is a book about the nature of justice, the human desire to fit in and our fear of confronting evil.

The book follows two drifters in a dusty Western town (is there any other kind?). Art Croft and Gil Carter ride into town where the tension is so thick you could cut it with a butter knife. Rustlers have been stealing cattle and ranchers are going out of business. Everyone is on edge. Tempers are high and everyone is drinking whiskey like there is no tomorrow. The tension is ratcheted up a notch as Gil gets into a fight with a local over a poker game. Then, just as a real grim and foreboding sense of menace settled over me, a young boy rides into town. A well-liked local has been killed. Cattle are missing.

The simmering tension boils over and the townsfolk begin forming a lynch mob. Some locals try to slow things down, but tensions are running high. This wasn't just about rustling any longer. A man was dead. Men wanted to end this problem once and for all. The rustlers couldn't be far. The time for action was now. A few locals, notably Davies try to slow things down, but the pack of men takes on a life and energy of its own.
“Men, let us not act hastily; let us not do that which we will regret. We must act, certainly, but we must act in a reasoned and legitimate manner, not as a lawless mob…. We desire justice, and justice has never been obtained in haste and strong feeling.”

The other side, the side hot for action will have nothing of talk of delay. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I've had enough of rustling. Do we have rights as men and cattlemen, or don’t we? We know what Tyler is, or any man like Tyler,” he added glaring at Osgood, “if we wait, I tell you, there won’t be one head of anybody’s cattle left in the meadows by the time we get justice.” He ridiculed the work “justice” by his tone. “For that matter,” he called, raising his voice higher, “what is justice? Is it justice that we sweat ourselves sick and old every damned day of the year to make a handful of honest dollars, and then lose it all in one night to some miserable greaser because Judge Tyler, whatever God make of him, says we have to fold our hands and wait for his eternal justice? Waiting for Tyler’s kind of justice we’d all be beggars in a year.”

The men are swayed by the need for action, now. They see the problem. They see a good chance at a solution. Despite individual, quiet (or private) misgivings, a posse is formed and they ride out. To fail to act is to let down their neighbors and their own sense of what it means to be an independent man. Men protect what they own. They fight to protect what they own. To do otherwise would let down their neighbors, and in a small town the disapproval of one’s neighbors is a powerful force. To emphasize this point the author recounts the story of Rose, an attractive, charismatic unmarried woman who was driven from the town by the ostracization of the other, largely married women in town.

At the Ox-Bow, the posse does, of course, find three cowboys with a herd of cattle. They have no bill of sale and their story just doesn't add up. There is a further build up in pressure. The two sides form again. Tetley and Farnley argued passionately for justice: “We've got the bastards; well, what are we waiting for? Let them swing, I say.” Davies strives to make the case for delaying the hanging. “I’m not trying to delay justice. But I do want to see real justice. This is a farce; this is, as Mr. Martin has said, murder.” The ranchers and townsfolk argue throughout the night, finally settling to hang the three men at dawn.

Thirty minutes later the Sheriff arrives. Tragically, the men were telling the truth. And here is where the book really shines as the consequences of their rush to judgment hammer home. Davies is in a personal hell. Despite fighting the longest and hardest to save the three men, he blames himself. He knew that he could've saved the men, but he failed to act – because he was afraid, afraid of confronting a strong man he knew was wrong, afraid of the conflict, afraid of the social disruption.

“I knew those men were innocent. I knew it as surely as I do now. And I knew that Tetley could be stopped. I knew in that moment you were all ready to be turned. And I was glad I didn't have a gun. …. I had everything, justice, pity, even the backing – and I knew it – and I let those three men hand because I was afraid. The lowest kind of virtue, the quality dogs have when they need it, the only thing that Tetley had, guts, plain guts, and I didn’t have it.”

V stars out of V. This book is as relevant today as it was when it was first written. The dark, brooding mood of the narrative and the almost mournful, melancholy characters create a spellbinding tale of human weakness and the damning rush to judgment. What is justice? How do we find justice? What will you sacrifice to stand up to evil? A book that asks questions like these is, in my mind, a classic. (And this book should totally be required high school reading in my humble opinion)>

[Sue K H · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little book is a masterpiece.  It should be required reading in middle school, high school, college and anywhere else anyone can think of.  

Walter Van Tilburg Clark, is an amazing writer.  He wrote an extremely persuasive book about the madness of crowds without using persuasive language.  I read this with a group and most were also reading or had read Twelve Angry Men.  These books complimented each other very well. 

I'll keep my plot comments to the set-up in the first chapter so as not to spoil anything.   Clark tells the story of a small Navada town whose opening scenes describe how the town women bullied a single woman out of town, not for what she did, but for what she could possibly do with their husbands.  Two outsiders who are known due to their frequent visits, in part because one of them is in love with the woman whose name is Rose.  They find out about her banishment at the local bar.  This causes Gil, the one in love, to drink more and be more on edge than normal.  Of the two, he's the wilder one and his buddy Art (our narrator) is the more measured one.   They also find out that some locals have lost a big chunk of their cattle to rustlers and instantly get a bad feeling about how the townspeople will react.  Clark uses richley descriptive prose to bring the characters and setting to life.  He introduces the characters through a lively poker hand that gets out of hand.  In their riled up state, they also find out that a man in the town is murdered.  This plus the rustling causes them to be out for blood.  

The descriptive prose is mesmerizing.  I put sticky notes in half the pages!  This one is one of my favorite passages where he vividly sets up the ominous feeling of a coming storm that mirrors what is happening in the broken souls of men bent on revenge.  

Others were having trouble too, and we pulled to a jog again, and held it, all the hoofs trampling and the squilch-squelch, squilch-squelch, and the little clods popping gently out to the side and rolling toward the water. The blackbirds, usually noisy at this time of day, were just taking short flights among the reeds, and out farther, in the meadows, the cattle weren't feeding, but moving restlessly in small bunches, and the grass they were plowing through was flattened by the wind. I looked for a meadow lark. Usually about sunset you can see them playing, leaping up and fluttering for a moment, and then dropping again, suddenly as if they'd been hit; then, after they're down again, that singing will come to you, thin and sweet, chink-chink-a link. But there was too much wind . Probably all over the big meadow they were down flat in the grass and ruffled. They could feel the storm coming too. Ahead of us the shadowy mountains, stippled all over by their sparse pelt of trees, and piebald with lingering snow, loomed up higher than they were, right against the moving sky."

It's hard to say much about the plot without giving this away but don't miss this one.  It will shock you but also leave you in awe of all the intricacies that went into it.  I watched the film afterwards.  If you've seen the film, don't judge whether you like this book by that.  The film is almost cartoonish like most old westerns were.   I won't forget this book or Clark's expertly crafted writing. I've already ordered used copies of 3 of his other out of print books.  

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had seen "The Ox-Bow Incident" movie (1943) several times and it had such an effect on me that has not been forgotten over the years and never will be, it is that kind of movie. I think this was Henry Fonda best performance IMO, I am not a big fan of his but he was perfect in this role. So when I was looking for books that I had seen the movie, I had to put Ox-Bow on my list and when listening to an OTR, quiz show last week, "Information Please", this book was mentioned in all its greatness and knew it was time read it. I also heard the Lady Ester's Screen Guild Theater, September 18, 1944, which had its spin. The movie and OTR had their spin but the ending basically the same. In OTR, the Henry Fonda character is not present but centers on two men different in their personalities, Davies (a merchant-law abiding) & Tently (a confederate soldier and ranch owner who thinks himself the law). The movie and OTR had a different feel which had clear white and black areas. In the book lynching is seen as wrong but there is such a grey area with the characters which gives a more realistic view of the mob which is neither pretty or pleasant to read. Walter Van Tilburg Clark does such a great job in showing us readers the darkness that can happen when mob rules and the individual gives himself to this, afraid to speak for himself. Even in today's modern world, we see the injustice of man in his "rush to judgement"at times and even though the "rule of law" is not to our liking sometimes, this book shows perfectly why it should never be forgotten. The same scene that had me crying in the movie, had me doing the same in the book. If a book gets me to cry, now that is something kind of rare which makes this an ultimate favorite of mine and it is placed there with pleasure.

OTR September 9, 1944

https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com...

[Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

🏜️ This is a good edition to snag because of the intro by Wallace Stegner who loved discussing literature written in and about the West (try his The Bluebird Sings at the Lemonade Springs on that score).

🏜️ This is yet another classic, pithy, vintage western that uses the Wild West trope as the means of wrestling with what can go off the rails when people take the law into their own hands. Stark and thought provoking. Vigilantes are still an issue in the modern world even though the Old West is long gone. Humans are still the same old humans.

[alex angelosanto · Rating 4 out of 5]

a semi-hidden masterpiece of American literature. A parable on the nature of justice in a democracy. The novel makes itself relevant always, because it touches on what is always true

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this at the suggestion of my Dad and I really enjoyed it. The book takes place in the Old West and it is about the dangers of mob law and a lesson I think we could all benefit from even in today's world when the media often decides people are guilty of crimes before they have a chance to state their case in a court of law. It was beautifully written and I highly recommend it.

[Bob Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Necktie Party on the Road to Baghdad

Sometimes books and authors slip right off the charts. I don't know why. Plenty of unworthy works are discussed years after the demise of the writers or after their comet-like flash across the skies of pop fiction. For example, Walter Van Tilburg Clark's THE OX-BOW INCIDENT is hardly ever mentioned anymore. If you draw up your list of the top one hundred American novels, it's pretty much guaranteed that this work won't be on there. Yet, I do feel it is a classic. Director William Wellman made a film of it way back in 1943 with Henry Fonda, and though the film still resonates to some degree, it may look a bit stilted to modern viewers. As usual, the film-makers changed some of the main themes, created "heroes", and came to a moralistic conclusion different from the one in the book.

THE OX-BOW INCIDENT is a serious work of fiction, wrapped in the familiar disguise of a Western, complete with horses, dialect, guns, ropes, sheriff and posses. But don't let that coloring fool you. The fast-paced novel (it's only 217 pages) contains a great card game-cum-duel between keyed-up cowboys, a stagecoach encounter in a midnight mountain pass, the argument among men over the fate of the captured "rustlers", and the final denouement. But in the midst of all the atmosphere lie the key ideas---the dichotomy between men who think for themselves and men who go along with the crowd, between those who treasure justice at all costs, and those who wish for simple revenge with a mob behind them and some alcohol inside them. A major question has to do with law. Does not law spring from the conscience of society ? If it does, then men acting without the law constitute a direct attack on everyone. But what to do when there are lawless men and little justice available ? Should we sit there and swallow criminality ? But if people take the law into their own hands, the law is destroyed, because it cannot exist as the writ of one man or an angry group. How can people overcome their fear of the crowd, their fear of being scorned by others, to do the right thing ? These are serious issues played out in Nevada in the year 1885 in a remote valley where rustling had been occurring and murder alleged. The author could have been making an analogy to possible rise of fascism in the USA, a phenomenon which would have heralded the collapse of the law and justice and the rise of bully-boy rule, when Hitlers and Mussolinis could egg crowds on to mob action. I fear an analogy could be made today too (2018).

When there is a threat to society how should we react ? We must stand up to fight it for sure, but sticking to the law. Otherwise we become what we wish to conquer. When terrorists attack us, should we become terroristic ? How many "rustlers" have we "hanged" wrongly in Iraq ? This novel is not outdated in the least. It is a beacon of wisdom for freedom and justice in a top literary form. That's why it's worth reading and that's why I'm giving it five stars.

[Robert Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the heat of the 2012 Presidential battle, mired in debates with Libertarian friends, I sought a good read about justice, society, responsibility and humanity. My father recommended this to me when I was very young... too young to appreciate or desire this novel. But as a Nevada district attorney, I suppose he had some very deep connection to the story of Nevada Justice.

"The Oxbow Incident" is a meditation on the rule of law, the establishment of society, and all the personality types at play in the quest for justice. The specific part of human society that this book picks at until raw, is our motivation to act; our motivation to participate in pack behavior; our lust for power, and the willingness of some individuals to use the pack to attain that power.

Circumstances suggest that a man has been murdered and 40 head of cattle rustled. Justice must be served, and not at the slow pace offered by the judicial system. The town-folk of Bridger's Wells Nevada form a posse/lynch mob to find the pre-determined-guilty parties, and exact a rapid frontier justice.

The various characters serve as mouthpieces for and against a rush to judgment or action. Davies and young Gerald Tetley offer book-end assessments of human motivations, and it is hard to say who is more accurate, or who pays more for the beliefs he holds, in the end.

Some of the locals are "axe-to-grind", power hungry men whose motivations cover the entire spectrum EXCEPT for achieving justice in the case. I could not help but see, in this 1940 Western novel, an eerie parallel to modern times. Members of the vigilante posse hell-bent on lynching anyone for the murder of Kincaid, morphed in my mind to become the GWBush Administration and its cronies pushing America to war in Iraq. Circumstantial evidence; pleas to save society; appeals to machismo. A twist, late in the novel, makes this analogy even more apt in my mind... Without spoiling the novel (I hope) no WMD's were found in the Oxbow valley, either.

Elvis Costello writes on his 1988 album "Spike", "One day you're going to have to face a deep dark truthful mirror... and it's going to tell you things that I still love you too much to say..."

This novel is a starkly powerful mirror held up to our psyches, reflecting our willingness to stand up and do what's right, to "go along, to get along," to participate in sins of omission or commission. A Western American novel, no doubt, but also a timeless assessment of human nature, and the problems of power, justice, tribalism and fear. No reader can walk away from this novel and claim, in good conscience, looking themselves in the mirror, that they do not know the options facing them when a moral and ethical dilemma invites, nay demands their involvement.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about extrajudicial killings. It's awfully interesting to be reading it right now, when the Trump administration is actually murdering people on the high seas, among other illegal acts.

The setting is Nevada, 1885. Art, the first person narrator, and his cowboy pal Gil descend from the mountains into a small town and head to the saloon to drink and relax. Gil wins a big poker hand and a fight breaks out. A boy rushes in, announcing that cattle rustlers have stolen fifty head of cattle and killed a man named Kinkaid. More men accumulate, forming a lynching party to go find the murderers and hang them. There are voices of dissent, including the town minister, whom no one respects, and the local Judge, who advises them not to do it. The sheriff is out of town; were he there, the killers could be brought back and legal justice, a trial, could be administered. But he has deputized a man named Mapes to act in his absence, and Mapes has a lust for blood. It's feared the rustlers have a three hour head start, so time is a-wasting. Every minute spent arguing about legality enables them to flee farther. Mapes then deputizes the other men present, which is not legal - a deputized man cannot himself deputize. The party sets out. (Clark doesn't call the group a posse, which was a legal assemblage of persons, summoned by a sheriff to enforce a law.) Their leader is Tetley, a former Confederate general, who has brought along his adult son Gerald, apparently to try to toughen him up.

After hours of climbing into the mountains, they find three men sleeping by a campfire in the Ox-Bow. One of the three is their leader, named Martin; he explains that yes, he does have fifty head of cattle that he just bought, but the seller didn't give him a receipt. The second is old and demented. The third is a rough, proud Hispanic. The men of the lynching party debate what to do and decide if a majority of them want to call off the lynching, they will relent. Only five men voice their disapproval of a lynching, and at dawn the three men are hung.

No sooner have the men ridden back into town than they see Kinkaid, who isn't dead. He merely has a bandage on his head. They also find out that Martin did in fact legitimately buy his cattle and the seller neglected to give him a bill of sale. The Judge rages that all of them are murderers, and should be prosecuted for murder, but backs down. Art retires to a room above the saloon to recover from a shoulder wound, as the conscience of the lynching party, a storekeeper named Davies who had tried to talk the men out of it, confesses his feelings of guilt. They learn that Gerald, who didn't want to participate in the lynching, has hung himself in the family barn, and after unemotionally receiving news of this, Tetley has impaled himself on his own sword.


Clark's story isn't a critique only of mob justice, but of the hypermasculinity of the frontier. The biggest sin is weakness and physical cowardice. Weakness makes a man female. Weakness is why the group despises the minister, Osgood, and why Tetley despised his son. "I'll have no female boys bearing my name," says Tetley to Gerald when he doesn't want to participate in the lynching.

Clark wrote the novel in 1937-38, explains the Afterword, "when the whole world was getting increasingly worried about Hitler and the Nazis, and emotionally it stemmed from my part of this worrying. ...it was a kind of American Naziism that I was talking about. ...what I was most afraid of was not the German Nazis...but that ever-present element in any society which can always be led to act the same way, to use authoritarian methods to oppose authoritarian methods. What I wanted to say was, "It can happen here. It has happened here, in minor but sufficiently indicative ways, a great many times.""

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I have a continuous project of making note of the usage of nigger in fiction. In 1940 its use would be unsurprising.

p. 42: "We all knew there were two things made Gabe angry, seeing Winder angry, and being teased about niggers. ...Gabe was from Mississippi, and the worst about niggers I ever knew. He wouldn't eat where they'd eaten, sleep where they'd slept, or be seen talking to one."

There's a humble black character named Sparks.

p. 71: ""Coming along, Sparks?" he called, so the men grinned, finding that old joke funny about a nigger always being easy to scare. ...Sparks was a queer, slow, careful nigger, who got his living as a sort of general handy man to the village....he was honest to the bone, and the cleanest nigger I ever knew."

p. 74: ""They're kidding you, Sparks," Canby said from the door. He liked the nigger."

p. 117: "He was a heat-loving nigger anyway, not used to this mountain country yet."

"I'd noticed that Sparks never called me "sir" when he knew who I was. Not that I wanted to be called sir, and not that Sparks was ever anything but polite, but it did nettle me that he wouldn't be as careful of me as he would of a sponge like Smith, or a weak sister like Osgood. And even if you don't believe in them, you pick up feelings about darkies from men you work with. I'd worked in outfits with a lot of Southern boys, mostly Texas. They'd drop a white man who played with a nigger even faster than they would a nigger, and they had a sharp line about niggers. They wouldn't condescend about them, the way some of us did, but they wouldn't eat or drink where black men did, or sleep in blankets a nigger had used, or have anything more to do with a house where a nigger had been let in the front door. They didn't condescend, I thought, just because they never even considered a nigger the same kind of creature enough to make comparison. I'd picked up just enough of this crude habit to make me feel guilty whenever I had such thoughts. I did now."

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a little book that roars through your conscience and stomps ethic and moral codes to the hinterland. What is law ,what is justice are they one and the same? Is it ever right to take the law and judgment into your own hands? Clark leads you to an ending in which you must ask yourself this question. For a 200 and something page book it speaks volumes.

Imagine you are in a saloon in the old west ,vigilante justice is on the rise and someone rides into town with a wild story about murder and cattle rustling. Would you join in the mob , would you be the voice of justice?

This book was written about the time of the rise of Nazi Germany. We can ask ourselves what were they thinking to allow something like that to happen in Germany. The allegory is so obvious between this book and man allowing mob rule. Clark's character young Tetley states, humans run in a pack like wolves or coyotes to prove who is superior or more powerful. My wondering is are we still the same in allowing things to go on in the world and not stepping forward to stand for the innocent ones being unjustly judged, because we are afraid to go against the rule of the majority .

This book makes you go into your very being and try to answer these questions. We can try to justify our stance, but will the law prevail or will our souls stand for real justice. a wonderful deep book that keeps you weighing your thoughts about what is right or what is the law.

[Terris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had been meaning to read this one for awhile -- I even started it once years ago but didn't get very far (I think I knew enough from seeing some clips of the old Henry Fonda movie that it was not going to be a happy story!). But I'm glad I finally read it. It is a powerful book about how the influence of a "group" can manipulate individuals and how they react in a situation. Are you willing to step out from what "the group" is doing and stand up for what you think is right -- even if you're the only one?
Wow, that hits hard! And kind of goes along with some things that are happening right now.
It is a sad book, but it really packs a punch!
Yes, it is in a western setting, but I wouldn't call it a typical cowboy western. Go into this one knowing you will come out having had to do some thinking.....

[booklady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember reading this in high school. Think I reread it again sometime later. Would love to reread it again.