Wilderness Clearing

by Walter D. Edmonds

Clumsy, diffident Dick Mount and clever Maggie Gordon live in isolated clearings in New York's Mohawk Valley. Both just 16, they are young and inexperienced - and unprepared for the tragedies that will befall them. When Dick's brothers are killed by marauding Indians in the fall of 1777 and Maggie's father falls desperately ill, they must turn to each other to face the perils of the time.

Audible Audio

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

Walter Dumaux Edmonds has been a National Book Award winner and recipient of the Newbery Medal. He is the author of Bert Breen’s Barn, The Boyds of Black River, In the Hands of the Senecas, Mostly Canallers, Rome Haul, Time to Go House, and most recently the autobiographical Tales My Father Never Told, all available from Syracuse University Press.

Reviews

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this one ... I believe Edmonds is at his best when he writes inspired by historical events ... and how can one not be inspired when you receive teeth in the mail. Another nice addition for my Edmonds collection.

[Josiah · Rating 1 out of 5]

How rough could pioneer life be in the America of Colonial times, when the heavy majority of the vast country had yet to be explored and only a few intrepid souls dared plant isolated homes in the wilderness, often many miles from the nearest fortified settlement? We get a sense of how rough it could be on page nineteen of Wilderness Clearing, when it is stated rather casually that only four of Mrs. Mount's nine children lived past infancy, and it's hinted that she may have been luckier than most mothers to have even that many survive. It wasn't easy raising a family in the wilderness of the American Colonial frontier, and author Walter D. Edmonds does not spare the reader from these bleaker realities. The main part of Wilderness Clearing, in fact, is the story of a real Indian raid that happened in northern New York in 1777, resulting in the deaths of more than one innocent child playing together outside, and how this attack forced the settlers to realize there was no longer any safety apart from the larger forts built to protect against Indian offensives.

Maggie and her father have done all right for themselves these last four years, harvesting the crop her father grows and using it to finance their modest homesteading lifestyle. Maggie and her friend Dick Mount, one of the four sons of their nearest neighbor, are both sixteen years old and starting to think about futures beyond their immediate family, when they may grow up and get married someday. But while Dick sees Maggie as a possible eventual partner for marriage, Maggie can't help thinking of Dick as just the kid next door; a fine enough friend, but not on her radar for settling down with to start a family. The year ahead as the American Revolution reaches full swing is fraught with dangers from every angle, however, and just as hazards escalate to an all-time high, Maggie's father falls ill, almost to the point of death. Now there's nothing he can do to protect Maggie from Indian raids and the high-stakes games played by small bands of independent armies ready to burn the property and kill family members of those who won't clear out the land they want for their own purposes. The only one available to guard Maggie is Dick, but is he capable of stepping up to do the job when lives are on the line? Can he prove he's more than just the unsophisticated boy next door Maggie thinks of him as, and come through to save her in the face of mortal danger?

"I don't think how old a person is has anything to do with what he really is himself."

—Maggie, Wilderness Clearing, P. 132

Walter D. Edmonds writes beautifully. I read Wilderness Clearing right after reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak for the first time, and there wasn't much of a drop in quality of descriptive language, which is saying a lot. Edmonds's vocabulary is wide-ranging and colorful, his descriptions intimate and surprising, keenly attuned to the emotions of the characters and their observations about the small square of the world in which their life's drama takes place. I would give one and a half stars to Wilderness Clearing, and it certainly is a story that could have risen to higher echelons of accomplishment, as good a writer as Walter D. Edmonds is. The Matchlock Gun, for which Edmonds won the 1942 John Newbery Medal, is sure to be his legacy for as long as he is remembered, but I hope there will always be those who won't forget his other books, numerous solid junior novels that could be received as well today as when they were first published, if given the chance. Excellent writing never goes out of style.