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Yellow Eyes
Book by Montgomery, Rutherford G
358 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1937
3 people are currently reading
148 people want to read
About the author
Rutherford G. Montgomery
93 books18 followersRutherford George Montgomery
Also published as Everitt Proctor, Al Avery, Art Elder, A.A. Avery and E.P. Marshall.
Montgomery was born in Straubville, Sargent County, North Dakota, "a true ghost town" as of 2005. to George Y. and Matilda Proctor Montgomery. He studied at Colorado Agricultural College, Western State College of Colorado, and University of Nebraska; taught elementary school in Hot Springs, Wyoming; and from 1917 to 1919 served in the United States Air Corps. During the 1920s, he worked as a teacher and principal at junior and senior high schools in Montrose County, Colorado.
Montgomery married Eunice Opal Kirks in 1930; they had three children. He served Gunnison County, Colorado, as a judge from 1931 to 1936 and as county commissioner from 1932 to 1938, then became a freelance writer.
While still at school, Montgomery began writing stories about the wild animals that lived around his family's farm. He went on to write books about aviation and the people, landscapes and animals of the American West, particularly horses. In all, he wrote more than 100 books.
From 1941 to 1946, Montgomery was a writer for Dick Tracy. He worked as a creative writing teacher 1955–57 and as a scriptwriter for Walt Disney Studios 1958–1962.
From Wikipedia
Also published as Everitt Proctor, Al Avery, Art Elder, A.A. Avery and E.P. Marshall.
Montgomery was born in Straubville, Sargent County, North Dakota, "a true ghost town" as of 2005. to George Y. and Matilda Proctor Montgomery. He studied at Colorado Agricultural College, Western State College of Colorado, and University of Nebraska; taught elementary school in Hot Springs, Wyoming; and from 1917 to 1919 served in the United States Air Corps. During the 1920s, he worked as a teacher and principal at junior and senior high schools in Montrose County, Colorado.
Montgomery married Eunice Opal Kirks in 1930; they had three children. He served Gunnison County, Colorado, as a judge from 1931 to 1936 and as county commissioner from 1932 to 1938, then became a freelance writer.
While still at school, Montgomery began writing stories about the wild animals that lived around his family's farm. He went on to write books about aviation and the people, landscapes and animals of the American West, particularly horses. In all, he wrote more than 100 books.
From 1941 to 1946, Montgomery was a writer for Dick Tracy. He worked as a creative writing teacher 1955–57 and as a scriptwriter for Walt Disney Studios 1958–1962.
From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
December 27, 2009
Found my diary from 1962 with a list of books read complete with ratings. Alas, no comments. This one was from the paperback series that you could buy through school. We got a catalog to pick from & ordered the books- probably for a whopping 35 to 50 cents each. Still have a few around someplace. I was on a real kick reading animal stories- this was about a mountain lion.
December 3, 2014
In grade four I was seated at a desk at the very back of the room, next to a little bookshelf. I seem to remember being frequently bored in class, having done my work quickly, and so I'd get books from the shelf and surreptitiously read them at my desk – if I kept the book on my lap Miss Perry couldn't tell my bowed head from the other kids'.
This was one of the books I read that way, and other Goodreads reviews seem to suggest that other people discovered it at around the same age I did. I'm surprised now to realise how old it is – I assumed the action was contemporary (to the 1980s!) – which goes to show what a timeless kind of book it is. But its theme is also zeitgeisty, about animal habitat being encroached upon by human civilisation.
It's strange how as children we accept anthropomorphism because so many stories told to children involve talking animals, from fairy tales and Aesop's fables to Beatrix Potter and Kenneth Grahame (who were themselves part of an Edwardian movement towards English nature writing for children, which is pastiched in AS Byatt's The Children's Book . So to me it seemed perfectly normal and natural to be reading from the perspective of a wild animal. As I kid I was really into survivalist stories along the lines of The Swiss Family Robinson so I really enjoyed reading about how this cat had to make it through hard winters, evade predators, etc.
I liked the brutal realism of it, with the violence of a cougar's life vividly described. I found myself cheering for Yellow Eyes, and I loved that he was basically a supercougar who was just really awesome at everything and Man was constantly underestimating him. [insert cougar roar sound effect] I would probably find the 'cat family' stuff excruciatingly anthropomorphised now, like The Silver Brumby , but at the time I remember feeling terribly sad when Yellow Eyes lost a cub (was it his brother, or his kid? I forget now – I read this book nearly 30 years ago) to a predator, or to a hunter. Also, I seem to recall really liking the way that the Native American man seemed simpatico with Yellow Eyes.
I only thought of it yesterday because I was writing a review of the film Serena, in which Bradley Cooper's character yearns to shoot a mountain lion in North Carolina. It's strange to think that this book was written around the time the film is set, so he might have been hunting Yellow Eyes or his lady friend. I'd be interested to re-read this, but it seems to have fallen into obscurity if other Goodreads comments are any indication.
This was one of the books I read that way, and other Goodreads reviews seem to suggest that other people discovered it at around the same age I did. I'm surprised now to realise how old it is – I assumed the action was contemporary (to the 1980s!) – which goes to show what a timeless kind of book it is. But its theme is also zeitgeisty, about animal habitat being encroached upon by human civilisation.
It's strange how as children we accept anthropomorphism because so many stories told to children involve talking animals, from fairy tales and Aesop's fables to Beatrix Potter and Kenneth Grahame (who were themselves part of an Edwardian movement towards English nature writing for children, which is pastiched in AS Byatt's The Children's Book . So to me it seemed perfectly normal and natural to be reading from the perspective of a wild animal. As I kid I was really into survivalist stories along the lines of The Swiss Family Robinson so I really enjoyed reading about how this cat had to make it through hard winters, evade predators, etc.
I liked the brutal realism of it, with the violence of a cougar's life vividly described. I found myself cheering for Yellow Eyes, and I loved that he was basically a supercougar who was just really awesome at everything and Man was constantly underestimating him. [insert cougar roar sound effect] I would probably find the 'cat family' stuff excruciatingly anthropomorphised now, like The Silver Brumby , but at the time I remember feeling terribly sad when Yellow Eyes lost a cub (was it his brother, or his kid? I forget now – I read this book nearly 30 years ago) to a predator, or to a hunter. Also, I seem to recall really liking the way that the Native American man seemed simpatico with Yellow Eyes.
I only thought of it yesterday because I was writing a review of the film Serena, in which Bradley Cooper's character yearns to shoot a mountain lion in North Carolina. It's strange to think that this book was written around the time the film is set, so he might have been hunting Yellow Eyes or his lady friend. I'd be interested to re-read this, but it seems to have fallen into obscurity if other Goodreads comments are any indication.
April 27, 2012
My absolute favourite book as a kid. I was obsessed with cougars for years afterwards. I rescued a copy of it off the back shelf of my elementary school because they said they were going to toss anything left at the end of the year to prepare for renovations. Copies of this seem hard to come by, so I'm glad I did.
December 20, 2016
It was just as good reading it now as it was the many times I read it over 50 years ago. Probably one of the books that gave me my passion for reading. I like how Montgomery doesn't write down to the young readers but writes to them as equal minds wanting to explore the universe through books.
November 29, 2017
I still have the copy I got off a Scholastic Bookmobile, eons ago. It was one of the first books that taught me to "think like a mountain," in Aldo Leopold's phrase, though of course in this case, we're talking about "thinking like a puma."
Loved it again when I re-read decades later.
Loved it again when I re-read decades later.
November 2, 2011
I absolutely love this book!
February 21, 2018
This is the very first book I ever purchased---twenty-five cents at a rummage sale when I was five. I went home and read it and read it and read it. Gorgeous book.
April 5, 2018
Really good book about the outdoors and the wild country of the old West. My dad read to this me and my brother when I was a kid and I've now read it to my son. Highly recommended, easy read.
January 16, 2019
Books about animals are always a favorite topic of mine, but many of these books also humanize their animal characters to some degree (I know the term is "anthropomorphize," but that's a huge mouthful...). I can understand why authors do this -- they're only human, after all, and write from a human perspective; and writers may also assume a reader won't be able to identify with a non-human protagonist unless they're also at least somewhat human or humanized. "Yellow Eyes" is unique, however, in that it gets us into the mind of a purely animal character, without giving him human traits or mannerisms. And it has some very valuable things to say about wild things and humanity's relationship with them in the meantime.
Yellow Eyes is a cougar growing up in the wilds of the American frontier, one who is marked forever with a fear and hatred of men after watching his mother and litter-mates die at the hands of a government-appointed hunter. Yellow Eyes strikes out on his own in an American West increasingly depopulated by farmers, ranchers, big-game hunters, and trappers eager for the bounty on big predators such as cougars. Yellow Eyes must learn how to avoid humans and their guns, hunt for himself, and survive an increasingly difficult world. But with a little help from an unexpected ally, an American Indian named Treon, he just might live to be the king of the cats...
Rutherford Montgomery's writing is simple yet effective, giving vivid descriptions and thrilling action scenes without relying on overly flowery prose. It's writing that, for the most part, still holds up today, and evokes the feel of a changing American West. Some of the descriptions of Treon and his ways come across as a little stereotypical today, but are still much more positive than media of the time tended to be, so props for that.
Yellow Eyes is an impressively done protagonist as well -- he's sympathetic, yet feels truly animal and not like a human in a fur coat as many animal main characters in fiction tend to be. Ruthorford captures the fear, anger, and content of a wild animal, and gives us realistic relationships between Yellow Eyes and the humans and animals around him. And Rutherford is quite blunt in his assessment of humankind's relationship with wild things back in that time period -- predators were ruthlessly butchered, and conservation and animal welfare were almost unheard of. This book probably wasn't intended to be an animal-conservation piece, but it can be read as such today.
An excellent piece of xenofiction, "Yellow Eyes" is a good read for those interested in a book with a purely animal point of view, and is an eye-opening snapshot of our evolving relationship with wild animals and how said relationship has impacted nature. Even suitable for most kids, though it does contain scenes of violence.
Yellow Eyes is a cougar growing up in the wilds of the American frontier, one who is marked forever with a fear and hatred of men after watching his mother and litter-mates die at the hands of a government-appointed hunter. Yellow Eyes strikes out on his own in an American West increasingly depopulated by farmers, ranchers, big-game hunters, and trappers eager for the bounty on big predators such as cougars. Yellow Eyes must learn how to avoid humans and their guns, hunt for himself, and survive an increasingly difficult world. But with a little help from an unexpected ally, an American Indian named Treon, he just might live to be the king of the cats...
Rutherford Montgomery's writing is simple yet effective, giving vivid descriptions and thrilling action scenes without relying on overly flowery prose. It's writing that, for the most part, still holds up today, and evokes the feel of a changing American West. Some of the descriptions of Treon and his ways come across as a little stereotypical today, but are still much more positive than media of the time tended to be, so props for that.
Yellow Eyes is an impressively done protagonist as well -- he's sympathetic, yet feels truly animal and not like a human in a fur coat as many animal main characters in fiction tend to be. Ruthorford captures the fear, anger, and content of a wild animal, and gives us realistic relationships between Yellow Eyes and the humans and animals around him. And Rutherford is quite blunt in his assessment of humankind's relationship with wild things back in that time period -- predators were ruthlessly butchered, and conservation and animal welfare were almost unheard of. This book probably wasn't intended to be an animal-conservation piece, but it can be read as such today.
An excellent piece of xenofiction, "Yellow Eyes" is a good read for those interested in a book with a purely animal point of view, and is an eye-opening snapshot of our evolving relationship with wild animals and how said relationship has impacted nature. Even suitable for most kids, though it does contain scenes of violence.
December 8, 2014
Rutherford Montgomery writes fabulous young adult novels about wildlife. This man knew wildlife from keen observation and incorporates his knowledge into readable and interesting books. He was hired by Disney in the 50's to advise on nature films even.
I've read most all of his in-and out-of-print wildlife novels and I think 'Yellow Eyes' is the best, along with 'Cacajou', his first novel about wolverines.
Yellow Eyes is about a cougar, and Indian trapper who is the human here, and a lion hunter. This was written in an era when cougars were killed as vermin all year round. Montgomery pulls no punches. This is not a Disneyesque novel for kids, but a novel that tells the real story of wildlife and their perils with the human race.
I highly recommend all Montgomery's books. I wish a publisher would take it upon themselves to bring his wildlife books back into print. I myself am collecting all I can for my own personal library.
I've read most all of his in-and out-of-print wildlife novels and I think 'Yellow Eyes' is the best, along with 'Cacajou', his first novel about wolverines.
Yellow Eyes is about a cougar, and Indian trapper who is the human here, and a lion hunter. This was written in an era when cougars were killed as vermin all year round. Montgomery pulls no punches. This is not a Disneyesque novel for kids, but a novel that tells the real story of wildlife and their perils with the human race.
I highly recommend all Montgomery's books. I wish a publisher would take it upon themselves to bring his wildlife books back into print. I myself am collecting all I can for my own personal library.
October 20, 2015
A favorite book from my childhood. I discovered it the way many reviewers seem to have; tucked away on a teachers' classroom bookshelf in fourth grade. I loved this story about a cougar struggling with nature and man (and hunting dogs!) to survive and raise a family. With my teachers' permission kept it and sadly loaned it to a friend in high school who must have liked it too because she never gave it back. I recently bought a copy on Amazon and it arrived today. As good as I remembered? Even better, I think.
If you are interested in nature and like naturalistic fiction and care about nature conservation and wild animals, you'll probably like this book a lot!
If you are interested in nature and like naturalistic fiction and care about nature conservation and wild animals, you'll probably like this book a lot!
March 12, 2025
I'm at awe of how heartless humans can be. Great story for young readers. The animal was too humanized for my taste but that would probably work real well for a younger reader. I wish the surrounding areas were better described. There were times I actually felt I was in the mountains with the tomcat but didn't have much to go by and decorate my surroundings, wind, sun, etc. Blessed nature!!
August 20, 2008
One of the few books from my childhood that I still think about on a regular basis, this book shaped my early love of animal and my views on wildlife preservation. I hope to pick up a copy and pass it on to my grandchildren.
October 5, 2011
I read this book as a child and it has stuck with me though the years. I haven't had much luck finding a copy of it to re-read, but once I do I am going to purchace it! I love animals and in particular cats especially the cougar :D
April 8, 2013
This was one of my favorite books as a kid. I read this book over and over. I was taken by the story. He lives a life where so much is difficult, yet he prevails. One regret I may have in my own life is that I did not take his example to heart... not yet anyway.
November 4, 2014
"Yellow Eyes" is among my favorite books that I read when I was in elementary school. I read it many times, and treasured it so much that I still have my copy more than 45 years later. Highly recommended!
March 27, 2018
I read this book when I was a kid. This is simply one of the greatest animal stories I have ever read. Yellow Eyes is a mountain lion, and this story brilliantly follows his life. The book is mostly for kids and young adults, but I think it could be good for adults too.
Great animal book!
Great animal book!
February 1, 2008
My favorite fourth grade book.
October 2, 2008
i rated this book in the mindset of my eleven year-old self. i loved this book!
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August 14, 2009I've read this book countless times over the years it was one of the first books I read!
January 9, 2011
I enjoyed Rutherford Montgomery's books. I guess I read it while in about 5th grade.
July 28, 2012
One of my favorites as a kid. After reading this, I would go to the local museum in the town where I grew up and just stare at the cougar and panther they had on display.
November 4, 2025
Something about the elusive nature of these/this big cat(s). Great fiction as a kid
November 24, 2014
Classic old-timey wildlife novel about a cougar's life (albeit very violent. Prey animals, cougars and hunting dogs alike getting ripped to shreds all over the place).
April 8, 2016
A very well written, realistic and often brutal story of a cougar trying to live in the wild. But he has trouble when man pushes into his 1930s wilderness.
September 4, 2017
Read it as a little kid. Liked it.
January 13, 2022
One of my favs
January 15, 2022
I read this book at least once every year in elementary school. A sentimental favorite of mine.
March 20, 2022
Short read but a good book.
January 7, 2024
Read this once when I was younger still goodnow
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews