Winds of Morning

by H.L. Davis

A stirring, provocative novel of the American Northwest in the 1920s, written with the same buoyant vigor, the sharp characterization, and the pungent wisdom that captivated readers of H.L. Davis' great Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Honey In The Horn

H.L. Davis' captivating novel is narrated by Amos Clarke who recounts back to thirty years when he was barely twenty and was a hot-headed young sheriff's assistant. For Amos, it is one experience that stands out the most for him during his time spent as a sheriff's deputy.

While delivering a summons, Amos stumbles upon a shooting that at first appears to be accidental. Busick, a ranch hand, has killed an old Indian. Amos takes Busick into custody. An open-and-shut case of manslaughter, Busick is tried and gets off. But when Busick decides to give up his rights to a small patch of grazing land, the sheriff instructs Amos to round up Busick's horses and lead them up to public pasture with the help of Hendricks, an old man who was looking after them.

As Amos and Hendricks head north with the horses, they find themselves on the hunt for a murderer when a wealthy rancher who was married to one of Hendricks' daughters is shot dead. Their search for a killer proves to be an epiphany for both men--and for Amos, this fascinating journey will forever change him.

Genres: Fiction, Unfinished

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Harold Lenoir Davis (October 18, 1894–October 31, 1960), known as H. L. Davis, was an American novelist and poet. A native of Oregon, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Honey in the Horn, the only Pulitzer given to a native Oregonian. Later living in California and Texas, he also wrote short stories for magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post.

Reviews

[Brian Edeker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in a pile in the library, knowing nothing of HL Davis. I was very pleasantly surprised. A literary novel of the west of the early 1900's. The descriptions of the landscape are done so well you can see the sagebrush and surrounding mountains as you travel along with the kid and Old Hendricks. Davis was 40 years ahead of Cormac McCarthy.

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it as a set in Oregon story. Great sense of place.

[Isaac Newell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Winds of Morning is chalk full with picture-painting descriptions of the land and great old American musings/dialogue. This did not make it an easy book to read. Quite the opposite in fact! The often abstruse language made this book a bit of a grind to get through at times. I found myself taking breaks every few pages and almost shelving the book for good once or twice. Overall, I'm happy to have stuck this one out- leaving with a stronger appreciation for my home state and a story I'd gladly come back to in years to come.

[Alyssa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made it through about 1/3 of the book before calling it quits. It wasn't poorly written or anything, there was just not enough interest in the plot to make me want to read on. Perhaps the writing was a little too description driven for my taste, but it wasn't annoying. I just felt like there was no tension. After avoiding reading it this past week, I knew it was time to stop. Maybe some other time.

[Rosemary Rinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book on one of my trips to Oregon. Slow-moving elegiac story of a deputy sheriff wandering around the decaying homesteading areas, with an old man who is gradually facing his family's predicaments; and a young Mexican outlaw. This motley group herds a pack of horses and tracks down a couple of criminals and solves a couple of old and new crimes. I am thinking brother Reg will like this book too.

[Tom Leland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Filled with wisdom and beautiful descriptions of nature. Much western back-country 1920s patois that was at times funny but often indecipherable.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are three quintessential novels about Oregon: Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion, Brian Doyle's Mink River and Honey in the Horn by H. L. Davis (written in 1935 and won the Pulitzer Prize). Winds of Morning is also by H. L. Davis, written in 1952. Set in the 1920's along the Columbia River, his characters and plot line are suberb, but his descriptions of the land, its flora and fauna, are simply remarkable. Every page comes alive. I have an original hardback copy with the slip cover intact. It is keeper.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great descriptions of the terrain. Good book!

[Neglectedbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hesitate to call this a Western for grown-ups, because that usually just means the sexual element isn’t completely repressed. But Winds of Morning is certainly written from a more mature and morally, economically, even ecologically realistic perspective than just about anything I’ve ever come across that had the label “Western” applied to it. Several dozen characters pass across the stage in the course of the book, and not one gets less than a fully-rounded treatment.

Even the landscape gets a fully-rounded treatment — and what book could qualify as a Western without plenty of landscape:

"The river had changed color a little; it was not blackish, as it had been when we looked at it from the hillside, and not roily, as lowland rivers always were after a hard rain, but milky green, like snow water that has thawed too fast for the air to separate from it. The current was swift, but it held to its ordinary level as if the torrents of rain flooding into it had all been beneath its notice."

Though Davis tosses a romance in to top Winds of Morning off, it’s the weakness element in the novel, and the most expendable. Men, horses, landscapes, and weather are already enough to make this a rich, intelligent, and thorough enjoyable piece of writing.

See the full review at http://neglectedbooks.com/?p=97.

[Joe Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Nothing ever turns out the way you thought it would," one of the lines said by the character telling the story, sums up the underlining theme of this novel written in 1952 and set in Oregon in 1920's. It's the theme of the story, and it's the experience of the reader too. If you don't like long, descriptive passages, you'll have a hard time with the novel. The author excels at description; the minutia he describes puts the reader alongside the eyes of the protagonist telling this story of crime and people dealing with change. The author's details describes the land, settlements, and people of Oregon at a time of transition from rural openness to the influence & perils of encroaching civilization. Not only does the author excel at describing the land and settlements, but also the effect of isolation and loneliness. If you stay with the story, you'll enjoy the adventure and the outcome.