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The Barrier
Short excerpt: Many men were in debt to the trader at Flambeau and many counted him as a friend. The latter never reasoned why except that he had done them favors and in the North that counts for much.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1908
3 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
Rex Beach
226 books7 followersRex Ellingwood Beach was born in Atwood, Michigan to a prominent family and pursued a career as a lawyer before being drawn to Alaska at the time of the Klondike Gold Rush. After five years of unsuccessful prospecting, he turned to writing.
His first novel, The Spoilers, was based on a true story of corrupt government officials stealing gold mines from prospectors, which he witnessed while he was prospecting in Nome, Alaska. It became one of the best selling novels of 1906.
His adventure novels, influenced by Jack London, were immensely popular throughout the early 1900s. Beach was lionized as the "Victor Hugo of the North," but others found his novels formulaic and predictable. Critics described them as cut from the "he-man school" of literature: stories of "strong hairy men doing strong hairy deeds." Alaska historian Stephen Haycox has said many of Beach's works are "mercifully forgotten today."
One such potboiler, The Silver Horde (1909), is set in Kalvik, a fictionalized community in Bristol Bay, Alaska, and tells the story of a down on his luck gold miner who discovers a greater wealth in Alaska's run of salmon (silver horde) and decides to open a cannery. To accomplish this he must overcome the relentless opposition of the "salmon trust," a fictionalized Alaska Packers' Association, which undercuts his financing, sabotages his equipment, incites a longshoremen's riot and bribes his fishermen to quit. The story line includes a love interest as the protagonist is forced to choose between his fiance, a spoiled banker's daughter, and an earnest roadhouse operator, a woman of "questionable virtue." Real life cannery superintendent Crescent Porter Hale has been credited with being the inspiration of The Silver Horde but it's unlikely Beach and Hale ever met.
After success in literature, many of his works were adapted into successful films; The Spoilers became a stage play, then was remade into movies five times from 1914 to 1955, with Gary Cooper and John Wayne each playing "Roy Glennister" in 1930 and 1942, respectively. The Silver Horde was twice made into a movie, as a silent film in 1920 starring Myrtle Stedman, Curtis Cooksey and Betty Blythe and directed by Frank Lloyd; and a talkie in 1930 that starred Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea and Evelyn Brent and was directed by George Archainbaud.
Beach occasionally produced his films and also wrote a number of plays to varying success. In 1949, two years after the death of his wife Edith, Beach committed suicide in Sebring, Florida at the age of 71. In 2005, when the home Beach lived in was remodeled, a bullet was found in the wall, believed to be the bullet that ended his life.
Beach served as the first president of the Rollins College Alumni Association. He and his wife are buried in front of the Alumni house. Beach, and his most famous novel, were commemorated in 2009 by the naming of a walking/bike trail in Dobbs Ferry, NY, where he once resided, called "Spoilers Run".
His first novel, The Spoilers, was based on a true story of corrupt government officials stealing gold mines from prospectors, which he witnessed while he was prospecting in Nome, Alaska. It became one of the best selling novels of 1906.
His adventure novels, influenced by Jack London, were immensely popular throughout the early 1900s. Beach was lionized as the "Victor Hugo of the North," but others found his novels formulaic and predictable. Critics described them as cut from the "he-man school" of literature: stories of "strong hairy men doing strong hairy deeds." Alaska historian Stephen Haycox has said many of Beach's works are "mercifully forgotten today."
One such potboiler, The Silver Horde (1909), is set in Kalvik, a fictionalized community in Bristol Bay, Alaska, and tells the story of a down on his luck gold miner who discovers a greater wealth in Alaska's run of salmon (silver horde) and decides to open a cannery. To accomplish this he must overcome the relentless opposition of the "salmon trust," a fictionalized Alaska Packers' Association, which undercuts his financing, sabotages his equipment, incites a longshoremen's riot and bribes his fishermen to quit. The story line includes a love interest as the protagonist is forced to choose between his fiance, a spoiled banker's daughter, and an earnest roadhouse operator, a woman of "questionable virtue." Real life cannery superintendent Crescent Porter Hale has been credited with being the inspiration of The Silver Horde but it's unlikely Beach and Hale ever met.
After success in literature, many of his works were adapted into successful films; The Spoilers became a stage play, then was remade into movies five times from 1914 to 1955, with Gary Cooper and John Wayne each playing "Roy Glennister" in 1930 and 1942, respectively. The Silver Horde was twice made into a movie, as a silent film in 1920 starring Myrtle Stedman, Curtis Cooksey and Betty Blythe and directed by Frank Lloyd; and a talkie in 1930 that starred Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea and Evelyn Brent and was directed by George Archainbaud.
Beach occasionally produced his films and also wrote a number of plays to varying success. In 1949, two years after the death of his wife Edith, Beach committed suicide in Sebring, Florida at the age of 71. In 2005, when the home Beach lived in was remodeled, a bullet was found in the wall, believed to be the bullet that ended his life.
Beach served as the first president of the Rollins College Alumni Association. He and his wife are buried in front of the Alumni house. Beach, and his most famous novel, were commemorated in 2009 by the naming of a walking/bike trail in Dobbs Ferry, NY, where he once resided, called "Spoilers Run".
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 6, 2013
Yet another Rex Beach action/love story set in the wilderness of the Northwest. Kentuckian Lt. Meade Burrell is in charge of the (unwanted) American military presence in the untamed Yukon as the gold rush is in full swing. He finds himself attracted to Necia Gale, daughter of the local trading post owner. However, Necia's father is white while her mother is Native American (and they're not married), thus she's not worthy of Burrell's superior White Man love. Poleon Doret is a French Canadian trapper and trader. He's known Necia for years and loves and accepts her for who she is, but Necia only sees him as a big brother. Then its discovered Furthermore, I'm ticked off when
August 10, 2020
The surprising thing is that Rex Beach is an engaging writer. I fell into the flow of the action as melodramatic and predictable as it is, and was engaged until the end. However, the thing that does not surprise is how patriarchal the author comes off. Anyone who is not white is subhuman. Indians are mysterious non-communicative creatures, the only black character is thief of hams, and worst of all are "half-breeds" whose very mixture makes them a danger to society. Naturally, men are the ones that do, while women are little more than children.
True, one leading character, John Gale, has the view that skin color doesn't matter, but for Meade, the main character, his chief struggle throughout the novel is his love for John's daughter, Necia, whose mother is Paiute. Necia's mixed heritage is the barrier of this title, for it would prevent him from marrying her, an act which would lead to the loss of his family and his military career and any social status he has. The problem is only resolved when it is learned (spoiler alert) she is actually 100% white, so it becomes socially okay for Meade to love her. Ew.
Taking a step back, a reader can easily see that the whole story revolves around three or four grown men fighting to be the guy to marry a 17 year old girl. I'm not sure how that would be perceived at the time this book was published (1908) but it should certainly be viewed with distaste. Double ew.
True, one leading character, John Gale, has the view that skin color doesn't matter, but for Meade, the main character, his chief struggle throughout the novel is his love for John's daughter, Necia, whose mother is Paiute. Necia's mixed heritage is the barrier of this title, for it would prevent him from marrying her, an act which would lead to the loss of his family and his military career and any social status he has. The problem is only resolved when it is learned (spoiler alert) she is actually 100% white, so it becomes socially okay for Meade to love her. Ew.
Taking a step back, a reader can easily see that the whole story revolves around three or four grown men fighting to be the guy to marry a 17 year old girl. I'm not sure how that would be perceived at the time this book was published (1908) but it should certainly be viewed with distaste. Double ew.
January 1, 2026
I would not have finished this book, but I was named after the Native American character, Necia Gale. I finished it for that reason alone. The story didn't really hold my interest.
March 19, 2014
a great example of what made a 'strong' woman at the beginning of the last century
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews