The Saga of Hugh Glass: Pirate, Pawnee and Mountain Man

by John Myers Myers

Before his most fabulous adventure (celebrated by John G. Neihardt in The Song of Hugh Glass and by Frederick Manfred in Lord Grizzly), Hugh Glass was captured by the buccaneer Jean Lafitte and turned pirate himself until his first chance to escape. Soon he fell prisoner to the Pawnees and lived for four years as one of them before he managed to make his way to St. Louis. Next he joined a group of trappers to open up the fur-rich, Indian-held territory of the Upper Missouri River. Then unfolds the legend of a man who survived under impossible robbed and left to die by his comrades, he struggled alone, unarmed, and almost mortally wounded through two thousand miles of wilderness.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Survival, Biography Memoir, Westerns, Adventure

237 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Myers was born and grew up on Long Island, New York. He attended the University of New Mexico briefly, but was expelled for being one of the writers in a rebel newspaper, The Pariah. After extensive travel through Europe and the United States, Myers worked for the New York World and San Antonio Evening News. He was also an advertising copywriter. Myers served a short term in the U.S. Army during World War II. In 1943, he married Charlotte Shanahan, with whom he had two daughters. He settled in Tempe, Arizona in 1948. John Myers Myers died October 30, 1988.

Reviews

[Charles van Buren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkable story. Review of the 1976 Kindle edition.

What an incredible hard and adventurous life. He was a seaman captured by Jean Lafitte's pirates and forced to join them. He eventually made his escape and endured many hardships while lost in the American west. Captured by Pawnee Indians, he escaped death by the skin of his teeth and was adopted into the tribe. He learned much during his time as a Pawnee which aided him in his life as a mountain man up the Missouri river.

His main claim to fame is his survival of a grizzly bear attack and subsequent abandonment in the wilderness. Of course this book covers that but there is much more to Glass' story than the trial by bear. Why did he and others live such a brutal life is answered at least in part - What choices did these particular young men have? Ride the wilderness or live the hard life of being harnessed to the plow and poverty.

Mr. Myers' 1963 book is about as complete as possible considering the dearth of records. The writing is a breezy, easy to read, entertaining style.

Two movies have been based on the life of Hugh Glass but are mainly about the bear attack and his ultimate survival against incredible odds.  Man in the Wilderness, a 1971 movie starring Richard Harris and The Revenant, a 2015 movie which revitalized popular interest in Hugh Glass.

[Theo Logos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mountain man Hugh Glass was a legend to his peers, many of them legends themselves. His fame spread to the East, where his incredible story was told in the newspapers of Philadelphia. His legend entered the lore of Indian tribes as well, where it was still being told many decades after his passing. John Myers Myers' book helped to revive Hugh’s legend from the obscurity it had faded into during the 20th century, restoring him to his rightful place among American frontier legends.

The central tale of Hugh's legend is almost too fantastic to be believed. Attacked and mauled to the point of death by a grizzly bear, he was left in the wilderness to die by companions who robbed him of his rifle, knife, tomahawk, flint, and nearly all the tools necessary for survival in the wild. Yet Hugh, though horribly wounded, near death and weaponless, navigated over 300 miles of virgin wilderness back to a frontier outpost. After refitting with weapons and equipment, and before his wounds were fully healed, he set out into the wilderness alone once more to make an incredible solo winter journey to retrieve his precious rifle and take vengeance on the companions who had robbed and abandoned him.

Many historians had discounted this story as balderdash -- nothing but the outlandish boasting of a blowhard's self-aggrandizement. Myers addresses this in the first section of his book, carefully assembling the remaining evidence, and building a powerful case for the veracity of the legend. Before launching into Hugh's story, Myers attempts to reasonably established that, though fantastic, the story you are about to read is true, not just another tall tale.

John Myers Myers researched his histories, but there’s nothing academic about his tale telling. He was a pure folk historian. His writing style is idiosyncratic, and resembles a grizzled old story teller spinning yarns around the fire. His prose is loaded with colorful phrases -- "pickled in print", "throwing lead", "not a bet on which Lloyds of London would risk a confederate dollar" — these are typical of his style, a small sampling of his unique voice. It is a style perfectly suited to his subject and a charming change of pace from the ordinary. His book is highly recommended reading for anyone who loves stories of amazing true adventure told well.

[Dan Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for an authoritative and scholarly work on the fur trade of the American West, look elsewhere. If you're looking for an entertaining yarn spun by your crotchety and inebriated uncle, then this is the book for you.

I picked this up at Fort Atkinson which I'd heard of via The Revenant, but we were also on the Lewis and Clark Trail. I wanted something that put the person of Hugh Glass in context and also Jim Bridger (a fellow Virginian). The ranger at the fort suggested many wonderful books and I got this one, likely to his chagrin, because funds were tight. This book mostly gave me what I wanted once I got used to the Drunk Racist Uncle writing style. My major gripe: a MAP would have been great.

[Becky Kimmel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much I am sharing it with all the men in my family. Well written, well researched, I found it a very gripping, historical account of a mountain man survivor.

[Lenora Good · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was in elementary school when I first came across the story of Hugh Glass, and he immediately became one of my childhood heroes. I wanted to grow up and be a Mountain Man like Glass and Bridger, Colter and Meek. I was in fifth, possibly sixth grade when I came across a copy of Lord Grizzley by Frederick Manfred. By the time I read Neihardt's The Song of Hugh Glass I was an adult, and well aware I would never be a Mountain Man.

How I missed Myers' book, I'll never know, but thanks to the new movie, The Revenant, I did some research online and came across, bought, and read his book. If, perchance, you're looking for a dry, date, and fact-filled, history book, look elsewhere, please. Myers had a voice unique, and this book, though filled with facts and dates, is not dry. He explained how he found his sources, why he believed this one and not that one, and spun a history as captivating as any campfire yarn you could hope to read or hear.

If Hugh Glass had not had such an intimate introduction to Mama Grizzly, chances are we would never have heard of him, beyond a name in a ledger in one of the fur companies for which he worked. But Glass had that introduction, and against all odds, survived to tell about it. And to seek revenge on the two men (Jim Bridger and John Fitzpatrick) who abandoned him. In Bridger's defense, he was a greenhorn, young, Glass was barely alive, and a war party of Indians was about. Besides, Fitzpatrick wanted to keep both his life, and Hugh's rifle.

If your only introduction to Hugh Glass is via the movie with Leonardo Di Caprio, then read the real story. Or as close as we'll ever get to the real story. This is an extremely entertaining book by an accomplished author. Well worth the time and money.

[Michele · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is supposedly the biography of a man named Hugh Glass who was captured by pirates and forced into servitude. He escaped only to be captured by the Pawnee and at the moment he is going to be killed, he is adopted as the chief’s son. Then he joins some trappers, gets attacked by a bear, is left for dead, recovers, gets attacked by some indians some more… blah blah blah on and on and on. Meyers spends the first pages of the book trying to make the case that Hugh Glass existed. Clearly, he didn’t sell me. The whole thing smacks of the bragging of a delusional mountain man. One or two of those events… I can buy but after he escapes death NUMEROUS times I have to call BS. None of it is or can be substantiated and Meyers is not a historian. Now let us discuss how poorly the book was written. It was so bad it was painful. Don’t believe me, here is a sample, “The first English-speaking white man to acquire legendary stature wholly in the West emerged from the sea in middle life, leaving his former years, and all that must have befallen a born adventurer in the course of them, blanketed in mist.” Now imagine 200 pages of that over florid tripe. It has hard to read.

For a full review visit http://ireadalotofbooks.com/the-saga-...

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was suckered into this one! A review in our local paper reviewed it in light of the movie being released. I doubt very much that the writer even saw a copy of the book, let alone actually read it.
I just looked over some of the reviews others have written and I guess I'm in the minority. Or maybe those that read part of it and hated it didn't bother to waste time writing a reviewer. Michelle shared my opinion. Long, wordy, boring, rabbit trails long enough to forget where you were going. It was as if the writer had committed to producing X number of pages, and therefore had to find enough tertiary information to fill them. I forced myself to finish it and it was truly painful. Stay away from this one!
I won't own this book, as it is not worth my shelf space. Will donate it to some poor sclep!

[Robert Downes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Published in 1963, this book may be of interest to anyone who enjoyed the film, "The Revenant," about the encounter between a grizzly bear and mountain man Hugh Glass. Author Myers offers some interesting details regarding Glass's life, including the claim that he was a one-time mariner who was captured by pirate John LaFitte and after escaping became a slave of the Pawnees in western Kansas.
Unfortunately, Myers' overwrought prose and tortured metaphors are reminiscent of the florid writing of the 19th century, making it rather painful to read. Sample: "The one consoling pearl in a bad oyster turned out to be a Tecla." (What's a Tecla? Search me…). And the grizzly is referred throughout as "Old Ephraim." Pretty crusty stuff, this.

[Aslee · Rating 2 out of 5]

While Hugh Glass was undoubtedly a man who achieved amazing feats of persistence, I don't understand why people are so obsessed with this man's story-- It has three separate narratives with no real closure. He goes on a revenge spree with no actual revenge! Imagine if Jon Wick didn't kill anybody and people just kept doing bad things to him over and over. That's this man's life. He's impressive and a good person but like. Its not a good? Story?

[J Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damn that movie (The Revenant), it surely did a disservice to the story of Hugh Glass. The movie was facutally inaccurate, all the way to the ending culminating in revenge and killing. A very negative movie. For a well researched and much more accurate portrayal of this fascinating individual, read the above book.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The things this man went through...Almost unreal! So many things should have killed him; he was clearly a very strong man!

Now that I've read the book, I can watch the movie based on it - Revenant. I'll probably hate it, but that seems to be par for the course.

[Drew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Majority of the books focused on people other than Hugh Glass. While I understand they had roles to play in his life, majority of the information I skimmed over to get to the parts I bought the book for.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The man behind :The Revenant", Glass was a formidable man and tough as they come. The book presents as much of Glass' background as can be found. Full of facts and well researched, Myers makes no conjecture about what may or may not be true.
I found the writing to be a bit 'textbook-y' and dry, but the material available about Glass is very slim and if you are curious about the man behind the myth, this short biography is as good as it gets.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best researched book on the remarkable story of Hugh Glass. Mr. Myers gives an honest portrayal of the man while addressing the legend and myth associated with him. The language is somewhat difficult to read smoothly, however, I appreciated the robust references and background.

[jj Grilliette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not for everyone. Old writings. Definitely a very interesting character.

[Roger King · Rating 4 out of 5]

The man, the myth, the legend. If Hugh Glass did not exist as the iconic Mountain Man, he would have to be invented. Larry McMurtry lionized Glass as Jim Snow in the Sin Killer; now Leonard DiCaprio fiercely portrays him in the new movie Revenant. Robert Redford played an equally laconic mountain man in the 1972 movie Jeremiah Johnson; he had the Squaw for love interest but lacked the Bear for impact.

Eaten and spit out semi-alive by a grizzly put Hugh Glass on the map, specifically in 1823 at the Forks of the Grand River in South Dakota. His tale of survival and revenge against those that left him for dead is the core of the book The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge and the follow-on movie. But the Hugh Glass Saga was much broader.

Backstory included leaving Pennsylvania for the Sea; captured by pirate Lafitte and joining his nefarious activities for a couple years; escaping on the Texas coast to be captured by Pawnees for another couple years; joining the Missouri River fur trade; and finally killed by Indians on the Yellowstone in 1833. Early parts of the story might be embellished, but even Paul Bunyan couldn't make it all up.

Glass rubbed flintlocks with more-famous William Sublette, Jim Bridger (who left him for dead after the Bear), Jedediah Smith, and maybe a Kit Carson or two thrown in in for good measure--but Hugh Glass was The Man.

John Myers Myers retells it all with droll wit in The Saga of Hugh Glass: Pirate, Pawnee and Mountain Man.

[Paul Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read, especially if you've seen the movie starring Leonardo Di Caprio and you want to learn the real story of Hugh Glass. Old mountain man English is the only hurdle to clear and that's not too high given the info gained. A paragraph from the recap of the book says it all...

"Older literatures have saved nothing like it. For by the time Sumerians hd begun saving tales in cuneiform, the wilderness had been left so far behind that any remembered prowlers of it could be seen only through the smoky lenses of myth. The world had to wait another six thousand years before the lost chance turned up again. Then the American plunge westward made something besides savages at home in the primordial -- and this time literacy was more or less watching."

This is not, however, a novel in story-telling form. It is a historical record, pieced together from many different sources and leaves lots of holes, as should be expected from the truth.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

The gruesome survival story of Mountain Man Hugh Glass is one step away from being mythic. Thankfully, Myers avoids the poetic and the mythic in retelling Glass's life-story (he leaves that duty to other fine writers of fiction & poetry, such as John Neihardt). However, Myers will sometimes insert non-quotation colloquial-sounding sentences within otherwise scholarly passages that disjointed this reader. On the whole, though, I found the book to be engaging, informative and the fullest of portraits of the impressive Hugh Glass.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely an interesting story. If it is true. The life of Hugh Glass seems extraordinary, but much of it comes from him, not actual historical documentation. And outside of the bear attack, he has no witnesses to back his claims. It is a interesting story, but this book spends a lot of time bouncing around to different subjects and a lot of general mountain men style info. Only about a third of the book is about Hugh Glass. It is interesting, but there may be a better book about Hugh Glass and his amazing story.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the stories of what this incredible man did. He really survived some unbelievable situations. Definitely worth a read if you like biographies of the old trappers.

As one example, he was attacked by a grizzly bear and left for dead by his companions. Over a long period of time, he eventually made it back to the fort, covering over 1,000 miles. How he did it makes me really appreciate toughness.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Saga of Hugh Glass is one of the better scholarly historical works I've read. It portrays Hugh Glass and his unparalleled life story with historical objectivity, accuracy, and a finely honed wit. While I might have preferred a more epic treatment of the story, this one fits Hugh well and might have been thoroughly appreciated by the subject himself. It's just a shame that we don't know more about him.

[Les Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting account of the life of Hugh Glass pieced together from various records and accounts. the author clearly alludes to the voracity or otherwise of sources, compares accounts and paints a realistic picture of the man and his life. The language used reflects the times (early 1800s) and adds to the tale. Now to check out the movie ....

[Leila Nicotera · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot recommend this book highly enough! One of the most fascinating reads for me in a long time. John Myers Myers has combed through a copious amount of material to weave together this startling picture, which follows the trail of some of the pioneering spirits of America. What a journey!

[Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unbelievable true story about a true survivor. They do not make them like this anymore.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a hair-raising true story about a mountain-man who was attacked by a Grizzly bear, left for dead, but lived to tell about it. Fabulous!

[Alicia Kittrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

[Daniel Brink · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though the life of Hugh Glass was interesting to me, the book read like a boring high school history book.

[Gwynn]

Recommended by Sedona museum

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good biography, a lot of detail in a short book

[Alan Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book , John did a lot of research for this book and it shows , i enjoyed the unique prose of this book , not for everyone I'm sure , but at least give it a try