Vanguard in the Gilded Age

by James C. Landers

America during the Gilded Age. Incredible wealth, shameful squalor. Half of all Americans, whether on farms or in cities, live in dire poverty. Labor strife. Robber Barons control the nation's economy. Government corruption at all levels. A new middle class seeks reform. This novel tells the story of a magazine, a family, and the men and women associated with both as they seek to restore democracy. Drama, humor, suspense, tragedy, optimism.

Genres: Historical Fiction

410 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 10, 2024

About the author

Hello. In chronological order: during the year after high school graduation I was a stockyard worker, delivery truck driver, repo vehicle driver, and bank teller-- only the teller's job was full time I took night classes at a community college, but that made me draft bait for Vietnam War. I enlisted Air Force, served tours in VN as a codebreaker of enemy radio/voice transmissions. GI Bill paid for college (first on either side of family to get a degree). 21-year newspaper career, 3-year co-publisher of city magazine and typesetting/graphic arts shop (failure). Back to newspapers. Then college prof (mag writing, communications law, media history). 2 history books published (Weekly War: Newsmagazines and Vietnam; Improbable First Century of Cosmopolitan Magazine -- each bought by about 2,800 libraries). Happily married nearly 40 years. Active in animal welfare organizations.

Reviews

[Clayton Lovelace · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting look at the Gilded Age. Lots of history context but told with a lot of life, action and fascinating characters. Details of the magazine operation didn't interest me as much as the come to life depiction of the rough and tumble streets of New York and just how tough life was in that era.
The action scenes pop and I very much liked the ending which has a feel of time and place realism.
If you would like to know more about this period in America with lively characters and stories, this is a book for you.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Won a copy of this book from Goodreads. Very well written historical fiction based on the life of John Brisben Walker. The time span covers the late 1800’s to early 1900’s in the 2 main settings of Colorado & New York City (Manhattan). The protagonist’s ideas & ideals were far ahead of his time. An enjoyable way to learn more about this lesser known time of our history.

[Amy Silvers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following his book, The Improbable First Century of Cosmopolitan Magazine, James Landers wanted to write a biography on John Brisben Walker, its feisty, progressive publisher from 1889 to 1905.

Biographical documents proved too scarce for that, but Landers decided Walker was too interesting to ignore.

“So I created an imaginary life for Walker,” he wrote in his prologue. “My fictional character is Zachary Taylor Brisben. I also created a fictional magazine, Vanguard.”

Events and characters come to life, popping into fine three-dimensional prose. The dialogue reads crisp and clean, with each character speaking in a voice that rings individual and true.

An engaging and engrossing read, it is all the more fascinating to see what imagination can do with the threads of sparse reality. Talk a walk in the Gilded Age of turn-of-the-century Colorado and the world of New York publishing. Try Vanguard.

[Cynthia Null · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately I had to DNF this book. I like the time period and the plot of the story however it's been pretty slow for me. I may come back to it at a later time. But right now it's just not for me.

[Steve Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haven't read historical fiction in long time, but Vanguard does grand justice to the legendary - and undocumented - life of John Brisben Walker, publisher of Cosmopolitan magazine at the turn of the 20th Century. Author James Landers recreates Walker's life with the exploits of Zachary Taylor Brisben, who washed out of West Point - like Walker - but sells his flourishing Denver businesses to buy a failing magazine - Vanguard - from a corrupt New York City publisher. On his way to New York City, Brisben heroically brokers peace after a deadly war between striking Cleveland workers and untrained Pinkerton guards. As Vanguard's publisher, Brisben builds a magazine that documents how America's middle class is exploited. He hires talented, underpaid writers and sends them around the nation to commit real journalism. Advertisers leave, but circulation soars. He fights NYC pay-for-protection extortion gangs, prompting them to set fire to his building and kill a trusted aide. He builds a utopia village for his magazine that offers housing for its workers. Then the powerful ruin him by sending the Postal Service after him, wielding the 1873 Comstock Act that prohibits (yes, it's still on the books) the mailing of obscene materials. Landers has an incredible eye for detail - clothing, menus, the idiosyncrasies of then-NYC Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt. If all historical nonfiction was this good, I'd return to them.