The Kean Land

by Jack Schaefer

Book by Schaefer, Jack

485 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Schaefer was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of an attorney. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1929 with a major in English. He attended graduate school at Columbia University from 1929-30, but left without completing his Master of Arts degree. He then went to work for the United Press. In his long career as a journalist, he would hold editorial positions at many eastern publications.

Schaefer's first success as a novelist came in 1949 with his memorable novel Shane, set in Wyoming. Few realized that Schaefer himself had never been anywhere near the west. Nevertheless, he continued writing successful westerns, selling his home in Connecticut and moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1955.

In 1975 Schaefer received the Western Literature Association's Distinguished Achievement award.

He died of heart failure in Santa Fe in 1991. Schaefer was married twice, his second wife moving to Santa Fe with him.

Schaefer's novel Monte Walsh was made into a movie in 1970, with Lee Marvin in the title role, and again in 2003 as a TV movie starring Tom Selleck. Shane was also made into a movie and a series.

from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Sch...

Reviews

[Amanda Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I return to Schaefer after a long absence, I realize I've forgotten what a stylist he is, how he relishes the leisurely pace of big block paragraphs and run-on sentences and foregoes commas because he doesn't actually need them or has decided he doesn't at any rate. Makes for a slow reading experience, but I think he means it to. Rushing Schaefer would ruin him altogether. Because I also tend to forget just how good he is, how moving his words can be, how well he understands human nature, and with what emotional depth he conveys his characters. Every one of these stories is worth walking through with careful steps that pause to savor. He's more than a writer of great Westerns; he is an all-around great writer.

Note: my review is of the 1961 Bantam edition, which includes the following short stories:
"The Kean Land"
"Stalemate"
"Nate Barlett's Store"
"The Old Man"
"In Harmony" (also published in Monte Walsh)
"Trail Crew" (also published in Monte Walsh)
"The Fifth Man"
"Enos Carr"
"The Coup of Long Lance"
"Salt of the Earth" (also published in First Blood and Other Stories)
"One Man's Honor" (also published in First Blood and Other Stories)

[Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

While not my favorite of Jack’s work, I thought this was nice! All of the stories were at least entertaining, and a couple were bona fide gems.

“Walking to school he saw the other houses in their neat rectangles of yards, the squared corners of the streets laid out in regular blocks, and he knew that almost everywhere out beyond the town were the neat sectioned farms with their neat cultivated fields and pastures, almost everything here and out there neat and decent and respectable. It was not always like that. Indians once roamed even this tamed land at will. And buffalo. Men had made it the way it was, men like his father, steady and dependable, careful with figures, planning ahead. And suddenly he knew, knew in real knowing not just as an idea taught in class, that other men had come first, men who didn't stick to roads and who knew Indians and fought them and sometimes even lived with them and could bring in eleven hundred buffalo hides in a single season. The wind drifting in from the west was not just the wind anymore. Maybe that blowing against his cheek came from way off, beyond this Minnesota, from beyond the far Black Hills near the Devil's Tower where the old man had killed a mountain lion once or even from on up in the real mountains themselves where Boone Helm lay buried with a rope-broken neck.”

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories, by the author of "Shane," was a treat to read. The "old west," the people who lived it, those who didn't want the change of progress, good guys, bad guys who were "good," all made for a good book, one I will read again.

[Jeff Dickison · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book of short stories, most of which were published in magazines (Colliers, Argosy, Saturday Evening Pose) in the 50's. Three had not been published. Most of them deal, in some way or another, with the changing West. All are well done and interesting. Recommended to Western and short story fans.