Son of the Gamblin' Man: The Youth of an Artist

by Mari Sandoz

The story tells of the gambler and townsite promoter who founded Cozad, Nebraska, and of his family, particularly his younger son, [who] became a world-famous artist and teacher known as 'Robert Henri.' This tale is essentially Robert's story, the story of a sensitive talented boy growing up in the midst of frontier violence. But it is also the story of the ambitious promoter and of frontier people fighting hunger, cold, blizzards, drouths, grasshoppers, prairie fires, and ruthless cattlemen. . . .

Genres: History, Art

333 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1976

About the author

Mari Susette Sandoz (May 11, 1896 – March 10, 1966) was a novelist, biographer, lecturer, and teacher. She was one of Nebraska's foremost writers, and wrote extensively about pioneer life and the Plains Indians.

Reviews

[Oliver Brauning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Son of the Gamblin' Man is subtitled "The Youth of an Artist." It seemed strange then, as the novel first flowed along, that the writing was as artless as anything I had hitherto come across. The characters were flat, the description of landscapes and happenings plain, and all interest was generated by the raw incident of the story rather than the way it was told. The reason for the book's plainness is, of course, due to the fact that it relates a true story, at least as true as Sandoz was able to find it out. Through the course of reading one wonders why, if Sandoz had to fabricate or imagine certain aspects (though I can't be sure which those are), did she not make the book more artful? Part of the reason is probably due to her integrity as a historian and a desire to hide her own hand—to make even the fictitious portions so probable as to represent, if not actually inhabit, reality. But moreover, I have to suppose the larger reason is in the title itself. The book describes not John J. Cozad's adventures as a gambler, farmer, and community builder; but instead his son Robert's development as a man and an artist. The leanness of narration only emulates the young artist's own inattention to detail and the world's poetry. Through the bulk of the book, interest is maintained because of the desperateness of the raw situation: the threats of arson, thievery, lynch mobs, locusts, famine, pestilence, fire and flood that threaten the Cozads and their homeseekers throughout the book. In the final chapter, however, Robert Henri is a grown man and a famous artist—here Sandoz applies her own art. As she imagines the conversation between John J. Cozad while he sits for his son's portraiture, a torrent of romance bursts from her pen.

The son did not lift his head for a long time. He had the reply ready. One he had thought over for himself a hundred, a thousand times the last few tears. What did he want? He wanted most of all to live his life as himself...he wanted to live the truth, live it as Robert Henry Cozad, the son of John J. and Theresa Cozad. Be what he was; yes, live as himself. But this could not be, not in the face of that curious mixture of pride and fear that seemed at the bottom of the father's long persistence in his assumed name. That curious romanticism, perhaps inseparable from the gambler. As Robert thought of this now he laid his brushes down and reached into the cigar box, always open, waiting, When fragrant smoke crept in blue layerings along the room he spoke. "I want the truth, as near to it as possible. I want to grasp the essence of everything which is its final truth" (331).

If this soliloquy seems improbable, perhaps it's only because the work of history itself is improbable; it's too improbable to find sources enough from which to reconstruct the inner workings of a human mind, one you have never met. "Paint a portrait to know the sitter," (332) but as Sandoz sees it, not even John J. and Robert can know each other. If a father and son have such trouble, she implies, what good can come from history? Son of the Gamblin' Man provides an assumed answer: a record of exciting coincidences and a blank sketchpad for imagination.

[Jarred Goodall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although slow in parts, the book paints an excellent picture of the life of homesteaders in the Great Plains during the 1870s and 1880s, focusing a lot on the challenges people faced, such as grasshoppers, fires, the railroads, and lack of bridges over rivers...this town represents the maiden name of my mother-in-law, which stands as the reason why I gave this book a chance...although historical fiction, I learned a decent amount by reading it...

[Howard Raymond]

I read most of it. Some parts get a little far-fetched. I wish Mari would have just written the story with what she had and not added all the drama. It makes it hard to know which parts are true and what she made up.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical fiction. Those poor settlers, what they endured in Nebraska. It was a nightmare.

[Mike Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

It mostly takes place in my hometown!

[Sherry (sethurner) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admire the art of Robert Henri, and so was interested in reading this somewhat fictionalized biography of his early life. He and his brother spent most of their youth in Nebraska, in a settlement their professional gambler father founded. The family name was Cozad, also the name of the town, but things were pretty wild and lawless in the area, and after the father was involved in a shooting and had to leave under cover of darkness, the family was changed forever. The father ended up changing his name, and when the mother and boys joined him the boys in a new city, the boys also assumed new names and claimed to be foster sons. I was interested in all the information about how the railroads of the time were involved in land settlement, and in the conflicts between farmers and cattlemen. Sandoz does a good job or recreating the times and issues, but sometimes the narrative dragged for me, based as it was so much on the father's life.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mari Sandoz is a Nebraska treasure. Her books are packed with Great Plains history and lore. You might not expect much action from a book about the founder of a small Nebraska town, but before you know it, you're lurching from one riveting episode to another: grasshopper plagues, grass fires, range wars, stampedes, floods, gold-rushes, lynchings, man-burnings, black-mailings, midnight getaways, anonymous death threats, arsons, blizzards and droughts. And it's all based on actual events, the unlikeliest of which is the eventual emergence of the town-builder's son as a world-famous artist.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written history, all Nebraskans should read it and artists also. Amazing story about the founding of Cozad, Ne. and the artist son of the founder who goes on to be one of the most famous American artists.

[Jonathan Frederick Walz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little House on the Prairie meets the art world.