Injun and Whitey: A Story of Adventure

The Golden West Boys #1

by William S. Hart, Morris H. Pancoast (Illustrator)

Vintage young adult novel about two boys' adventures in the old West.

317 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1919

About the author

William S. Hart lived for a while in the Dakota Territory, then worked as a postal clerk in New York City. In 1888 he began to study acting. In 1899 he created the role of Messala in Ben-Hur, and received excellent reviews for his lead part in The Virginian (1907). His first film was a two-reeler, His Hour of Manhood (1914). In 1915 he signed a contract with Thomas H. Ince and joined Ince's Triangle Film Company. Two years later he followed Ince to Famous Players-Lasky and received a very lucrative contract from Adolph Zukor. His career began to dwindle in the early 1920s due to the publicity surrounding a paternity suit against him, which was eventually dismissed. He made his last film, Tumbleweeds (1925), for United Artists and retired to a ranch in Newhall, CA. By that time audiences were more interested in the antics of a Tom Mix or Hoot Gibson than the Victorian moralizing of Hart. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, NY.

Reviews

[Sophie Cimon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pick it up in a free bin at the thrift store, finding the title funny. Interesting to find it was written in the 1920s. I was expecting Gross racism and weird things. Appart à couple of instances, i find it unusually tolérant for the time. The story in itself … meh. It’s basically a Huckleberry Fin in the Far West. Not that great.