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Roman Hasford #2
Roman
A young man ready to seek his fortune, Roman Hasford, sets out from his mother's Arkansas farm in 1865 and makes his way to St. Louis, Leavenworth, and the vast prairies of the West
389 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 23, 2020
On the day Roman Hasford’s father came home from the war in June of 1865, it was raining. The new green of the Ozark hardwood timber was like washed lettuce, dripping clear crystals in the slow but steady fall of water from a pale sky that held the sun close above the clouds and was about to break through at any moment. It was not a bleak day. It was a pearl-gray day, shining and gentle, with even some of the birds ignoring the weather and making their sparkling calls that seemed, like the leaves, to be washed clean by the rain.
In two of Jones’ earlier novels, Elkhorn Tavern and The Barefoot Brigade, the reader learned Roman Hasford’s backstory. Because his father was a soldier in a Confederate regiment fighting in Virginia and Tennessee, Roman, at age fourteen, began to assume the mantle of man of the house as he attempted to protect his mother and sister and their home from bushwhackers and jayhawkers that ravaged and plundered the area. To make matters worse, large Union and Confederate forces clashed in a major battle that was fought on and around the Hasford farm in the Arkansas Ozarks.
But now the war had ended and Roman's father had returned. Roman couldn’t help resenting the fact that he was no longer in charge and that he had to take orders from his father. And anyway, after the danger and excitement of the last few years he didn’t look forward to settling down to the peaceful pursuits of an Ozarks hill farmer. Therefore, at age eighteen, seeking independence from his father and mother and desiring to see and experience the wider world, he left home. As many young men did after the war, he headed west. Well, sort of. He settled in Leavenworth, Kansas, which was actually much more north than west, but was very much a western frontier town.
Because he was intelligent and industrious he was able to make important connections in Leavenworth and was soon on his way to becoming a prosperous businessman. But not all was peace and tranquility.
Post-Civil War jayhawkers and bushwhackers were also experiencing difficulty making the transition to peace and they continued to plague the border land. And to the west the Cheyenne were fighting a holding action against western expansion and encroachment.
Roman, at age twenty-two, even found himself with a small group of soldiers and scouts surrounded by a large group of Indians in eastern Colorado in what came to be called the battle of Beecher Island. The irony is not lost on Roman that the Indians were led by a Cheyenne chief known to the whites as Roman Nose.
As with Jones’ other historical novels there is an interesting mix of colorful fictional and historical characters. Since Leavenworth was the site of the major frontier military post, it comes as no surprise that a number of real military officers make cameo appearances, including Winfield Scott Hancock, George Armstrong Custer, George Forsyth, John Pope, and Philip Sheridan.
Furthermore, the battle of Beecher Island is an actual historical event and, yes, the Cheyenne warriors were led by a chief known as Roman Nose.
Published in 1986, Roman received the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award for Best Historical Western. Later editions were published under the title Roman Hasford.
Few writers can summon forth the agonies and joys of the rites of passage as poignantly as Douglas C. Jones, who in Roman counterbalances that highly personal experience with a broader one of the coming-of-age of the American West....as always Jones' vision is as singular as a thumbprint. -- Loren D. Estleman
In two of Jones’ earlier novels, Elkhorn Tavern and The Barefoot Brigade, the reader learned Roman Hasford’s backstory. Because his father was a soldier in a Confederate regiment fighting in Virginia and Tennessee, Roman, at age fourteen, began to assume the mantle of man of the house as he attempted to protect his mother and sister and their home from bushwhackers and jayhawkers that ravaged and plundered the area. To make matters worse, large Union and Confederate forces clashed in a major battle that was fought on and around the Hasford farm in the Arkansas Ozarks.
But now the war had ended and Roman's father had returned. Roman couldn’t help resenting the fact that he was no longer in charge and that he had to take orders from his father. And anyway, after the danger and excitement of the last few years he didn’t look forward to settling down to the peaceful pursuits of an Ozarks hill farmer. Therefore, at age eighteen, seeking independence from his father and mother and desiring to see and experience the wider world, he left home. As many young men did after the war, he headed west. Well, sort of. He settled in Leavenworth, Kansas, which was actually much more north than west, but was very much a western frontier town.
Because he was intelligent and industrious he was able to make important connections in Leavenworth and was soon on his way to becoming a prosperous businessman. But not all was peace and tranquility.
Post-Civil War jayhawkers and bushwhackers were also experiencing difficulty making the transition to peace and they continued to plague the border land. And to the west the Cheyenne were fighting a holding action against western expansion and encroachment.
Roman, at age twenty-two, even found himself with a small group of soldiers and scouts surrounded by a large group of Indians in eastern Colorado in what came to be called the battle of Beecher Island. The irony is not lost on Roman that the Indians were led by a Cheyenne chief known to the whites as Roman Nose.
As with Jones’ other historical novels there is an interesting mix of colorful fictional and historical characters. Since Leavenworth was the site of the major frontier military post, it comes as no surprise that a number of real military officers make cameo appearances, including Winfield Scott Hancock, George Armstrong Custer, George Forsyth, John Pope, and Philip Sheridan.
Furthermore, the battle of Beecher Island is an actual historical event and, yes, the Cheyenne warriors were led by a chief known as Roman Nose.
Published in 1986, Roman received the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award for Best Historical Western. Later editions were published under the title Roman Hasford.
Few writers can summon forth the agonies and joys of the rites of passage as poignantly as Douglas C. Jones, who in Roman counterbalances that highly personal experience with a broader one of the coming-of-age of the American West....as always Jones' vision is as singular as a thumbprint. -- Loren D. Estleman
March 5, 2018
Douglas C. Jones can sure tell a story. And he can sure create some believable characters, good and bad. He takes those two things and adds historical detail and comes up with some fantastic novels that have me reading when I should be doing other things.
Roman Hasford leaves home when his father returns from the Civil War. He is 19 years old and wants to see a little more of the world than just the family farm in Arkansas. Specifically, he has two goals: to see some buffalo, and to see some real Cheyenne indians. So, as Huck Finn would say, he lights out for the territory. He makes it as far as Leavenworth, Kansas, where he stops for two reasons. One: he met a beautiful girl on the way who was accompanying her father to the nearby fort, and, Two: he gets offered a job by the man who owns the stockyard. So he settles in and becomes a man at the same time our young country was going through growing pains of its own, never forgetting the values he had been taught, watching the laying of telegraph lines, the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad, the decimation of the buffalo, the Indian wars and westward expansion. There are good guys and bad guys, none of them all good or all bad. There is adventure and love and friendship. There is danger and betrayal and laughter and sadness. Everything needed for Roman to grow from a boy to a man. And everything needed for this reader to love this book and read it obsessively until finished.
One bittersweet note about this novel. I so badly wanted to recommend this to a GR friend who died last summer in a motorcycle accident. So, Kirk Smith, if you're up there in that big library in the sky where all bookish people go when they die, grab a copy of this one. You'll love it.
Roman Hasford leaves home when his father returns from the Civil War. He is 19 years old and wants to see a little more of the world than just the family farm in Arkansas. Specifically, he has two goals: to see some buffalo, and to see some real Cheyenne indians. So, as Huck Finn would say, he lights out for the territory. He makes it as far as Leavenworth, Kansas, where he stops for two reasons. One: he met a beautiful girl on the way who was accompanying her father to the nearby fort, and, Two: he gets offered a job by the man who owns the stockyard. So he settles in and becomes a man at the same time our young country was going through growing pains of its own, never forgetting the values he had been taught, watching the laying of telegraph lines, the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad, the decimation of the buffalo, the Indian wars and westward expansion. There are good guys and bad guys, none of them all good or all bad. There is adventure and love and friendship. There is danger and betrayal and laughter and sadness. Everything needed for Roman to grow from a boy to a man. And everything needed for this reader to love this book and read it obsessively until finished.
One bittersweet note about this novel. I so badly wanted to recommend this to a GR friend who died last summer in a motorcycle accident. So, Kirk Smith, if you're up there in that big library in the sky where all bookish people go when they die, grab a copy of this one. You'll love it.
February 20, 2018
When I first read this way back in the day I would have given it a 4 or maybe even a 5.
Not now. I found it wordy to the redundant and at this point in my life I also find the advancements in Roman's adult realizations and development all around much too slow to become real/connected to this time of the nation's history. He was just too good a mix to believe toward such successful outcomes for me now. Especially within his interactions with some viscous prone hoodlums and harsh men as compatriots. I found him much more within depth and spirit in Elkhorn Tavern as a boy protecting the homestead and his mother's life situation. Here he seems slippery but saintly at the same time.
It's probably the style of the period which tends to the pollyanna effect and me reading quantities of such prairie settled books since which don't. But it is a good book, but not as good as Elkhorn.
Not now. I found it wordy to the redundant and at this point in my life I also find the advancements in Roman's adult realizations and development all around much too slow to become real/connected to this time of the nation's history. He was just too good a mix to believe toward such successful outcomes for me now. Especially within his interactions with some viscous prone hoodlums and harsh men as compatriots. I found him much more within depth and spirit in Elkhorn Tavern as a boy protecting the homestead and his mother's life situation. Here he seems slippery but saintly at the same time.
It's probably the style of the period which tends to the pollyanna effect and me reading quantities of such prairie settled books since which don't. But it is a good book, but not as good as Elkhorn.
October 20, 2014
copied and pasted from "KIRKUS REVIEW
Superbly layered post-Civil War sequel to Elkhorn Tavern (1980), which told about the disrupted farm life of the Hasfords on the Missouri. Kansas borders of Arkansas during the unsung Battle of Pea Ridge in 1862. As in his earlier historicals, Jones seldom thinks twice about drawing his plot line in details. But since this is a period novel about a frontier education, the reader welcomes Jones' mastery of time and place and finds it entertaining as a Candide-like tale. Young Roman Hansford is now 18. When his father returns from fighting for the South and takes up the reins of the farm, Roman feels jealousy, the huge pinch of his virginity, and an eagerness to see the land of the Cheyenne. With his parents' blessings, he sets out for St. Louis, where he visits his now well-to-do sister Calpurnia, then sails by steamboat to Fort Leavenworth and on the way falls in love with snippy Victoria Cardin, beauteous daughter of the fort's Captain Edwin Cardin. Roman becomes straw boss in a big stockyard, is sent by train to collect some steers for resale to the army for beef, goes on a stomach-turning buffalo hunt, and courts Victoria. He also throws in with Jared Dane, a swank but cold-eyed bodyguard for one of the richest men in the West, August Bainbridge, who also takes a fancy to Roman. Much of the novel is about money and economic growth (he becomes a stockholder in the Kansas Railway and Telegraph Construction Company), and Roman's ties with businessmen lead him into starting up a big hog-farm with smokehouses for curing pork for sale to the townsfolk and the army garrison. Meanwhile, Cheyenne raiding parties scour the countryside, bushwhackers ride the night, ready to rob army strongboxes, and Roman's affair with Victoria fails when she becomes engaged to an army officer. In the five years he spends on the Kansas border, he also becomes a self-admitted alcoholic before deciding to sell his holdings--he has founded the meat-processing business--and head back to the Ozarks to raise horses. Another sequel seems surely in the works. Going by the unclichÉd realism and teeming detail of street and home life in Roman, this will be cause for pleasure.
Superbly layered post-Civil War sequel to Elkhorn Tavern (1980), which told about the disrupted farm life of the Hasfords on the Missouri. Kansas borders of Arkansas during the unsung Battle of Pea Ridge in 1862. As in his earlier historicals, Jones seldom thinks twice about drawing his plot line in details. But since this is a period novel about a frontier education, the reader welcomes Jones' mastery of time and place and finds it entertaining as a Candide-like tale. Young Roman Hansford is now 18. When his father returns from fighting for the South and takes up the reins of the farm, Roman feels jealousy, the huge pinch of his virginity, and an eagerness to see the land of the Cheyenne. With his parents' blessings, he sets out for St. Louis, where he visits his now well-to-do sister Calpurnia, then sails by steamboat to Fort Leavenworth and on the way falls in love with snippy Victoria Cardin, beauteous daughter of the fort's Captain Edwin Cardin. Roman becomes straw boss in a big stockyard, is sent by train to collect some steers for resale to the army for beef, goes on a stomach-turning buffalo hunt, and courts Victoria. He also throws in with Jared Dane, a swank but cold-eyed bodyguard for one of the richest men in the West, August Bainbridge, who also takes a fancy to Roman. Much of the novel is about money and economic growth (he becomes a stockholder in the Kansas Railway and Telegraph Construction Company), and Roman's ties with businessmen lead him into starting up a big hog-farm with smokehouses for curing pork for sale to the townsfolk and the army garrison. Meanwhile, Cheyenne raiding parties scour the countryside, bushwhackers ride the night, ready to rob army strongboxes, and Roman's affair with Victoria fails when she becomes engaged to an army officer. In the five years he spends on the Kansas border, he also becomes a self-admitted alcoholic before deciding to sell his holdings--he has founded the meat-processing business--and head back to the Ozarks to raise horses. Another sequel seems surely in the works. Going by the unclichÉd realism and teeming detail of street and home life in Roman, this will be cause for pleasure.
August 2, 2019
In Elkhorn Tavern we met the teenaged Roman Hasford whose father Martin, a Confederate, had gone to war. This novel commences where Martin returns home, and Roman leaves home to seek his fortune (and to fulfill his dream of seeing some Cheyenne!).
Elkhorn Tavern is an excellent novel, but I preferred this one as the character development is outstanding. Young Roman meets several interesting people, falls in love, spends time with a lady of negotiable virtue and has a close encounter with the Cheyenne at the battle of Beecher’s Island. There is plenty of danger: war with indigenous people, holdups, rattle snakes and cholera to name a few. There are cameo appearances of various famous people of that time, and Roman gets to meet some of these, including Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.
These are exciting times. The railways have been established. There are other new fangled inventions and opportunities aplenty. Roman soon gains a reputation as someone to be relied on, and before long he has several successful business enterprises going. It is even suggested that he could do well in politics and might one day be a senator. "Politics! State legislature! The United States Senate!" "God Almighty, he kept thinking, I don’t think Mama even knows what a United States senator is!" He does however ponder that there is a price to pay should he choose to follow that direction.
As his wealth and his reputation grow, so does his popularity. Lawyer Tallheimer Smith's daughter is making sheep eyes at Roman, and "For the first time, Roman began to understand what it meant to be a man of means. Little things came your way that otherwise eluded you. People gave you special consideration. There was almost a bowing and scraping, if only in the eyes, and the greater the means, the more pronounced the bowing and scraping." Roman knows where his loyalties lie, and though he might sup with the rich and famous, he remains loyal to his motley collection of friends. Roman encounters child abuse and bigotry, and makes his stand. He also comes to realise how important his parents are to him.
There are several ironies in this tale, the most horrible being when Roman very kindly but unwittingly lends money which is to be used to harm a friend of his.
There is a wonderful supporting cast of characters (not all necessarily very nice types) such as the formidable Jared Dane, Elisha and Spankin Hankins, Crider Peel and his little daughter Catrina, Tyne Fawley, Elmer Scaggs, Emil Durand and Min, Katie Rose Rouse, Orvile Tucker, the odious Lieutenant Archer, Captain Edwin Cardin (who knew the painter Whistler) and his daughter, the beautiful but vacuous Victoria. Even minor characters such as Lin Chow the launderer and Mrs Murphy who owns the boarding house are delightfully portrayed. "“None of it’s any of my affair,” said Mrs. Murphy. “And I don’t go about stickin’ my nose in other people’s business, you understand.”"
Quotes
"Roman Hasford’s first weekend in Kansas was like a great battle, or perhaps a tornado that blew the barn away—a time for him to remember through all his days. At first he saw everything, sucking each scene into his consciousness like a sponge sucking in water, as though afraid even a single drop might escape."
"They came like streams of termites into lands that really belonged to someone else, and when there was some dispute about who should have the right to stay, the army was put in motion to protect the interests of citizens who sprang from a nation with a biblically steadfast belief that it was destined to populate and rule the entire continent."
"Sometimes there was justification for alarm, because most of the warlike tribes in the buffalo lands were getting damned tired of white men coming into their country without even a beg-your-pardon."
"It was all that Roman Hasford had expected, and much more. He marked it in memory for years ahead as the single point when his fortunes changed. Viewed in retrospect, it was exhilarating, terrible, and wonderful, all at the same time."
"There were a lot of books in Mr. B.’ s car and I spent considerable time in reading between visits to the hospital. There was one called Oliver Twist by an Englishman named Dickens and because I couldn’t finish it in the time I was there, Mr. B. inscribed his name in it and gave me the book and it lies now beside my hand as I write in this diary. It’s what they call a novel, a story of imagination such as I have never read before, and it’s sad but I hope by the time I reach the end things will work out all right for the hero."
"The river was a dark mirror in the night, with a dull shine that faded into the Missouri shore at the far side, the horizon there outlined, an uncertain fringe along the bottom of the night sky. Only the strongest stars were visible, because there was a high veil of thin cloud, the threat of coming autumn, that shut off the more timid ones. Somewhere in the night above where Roman Hasford sat on the sorrel, there was a flight of southward-migrating geese, and their honking gave a ghostly echo to all the river’s quiet little noises."
Elkhorn Tavern is an excellent novel, but I preferred this one as the character development is outstanding. Young Roman meets several interesting people, falls in love, spends time with a lady of negotiable virtue and has a close encounter with the Cheyenne at the battle of Beecher’s Island. There is plenty of danger: war with indigenous people, holdups, rattle snakes and cholera to name a few. There are cameo appearances of various famous people of that time, and Roman gets to meet some of these, including Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.
These are exciting times. The railways have been established. There are other new fangled inventions and opportunities aplenty. Roman soon gains a reputation as someone to be relied on, and before long he has several successful business enterprises going. It is even suggested that he could do well in politics and might one day be a senator. "Politics! State legislature! The United States Senate!" "God Almighty, he kept thinking, I don’t think Mama even knows what a United States senator is!" He does however ponder that there is a price to pay should he choose to follow that direction.
As his wealth and his reputation grow, so does his popularity. Lawyer Tallheimer Smith's daughter is making sheep eyes at Roman, and "For the first time, Roman began to understand what it meant to be a man of means. Little things came your way that otherwise eluded you. People gave you special consideration. There was almost a bowing and scraping, if only in the eyes, and the greater the means, the more pronounced the bowing and scraping." Roman knows where his loyalties lie, and though he might sup with the rich and famous, he remains loyal to his motley collection of friends. Roman encounters child abuse and bigotry, and makes his stand. He also comes to realise how important his parents are to him.
There are several ironies in this tale, the most horrible being when Roman very kindly but unwittingly lends money which is to be used to harm a friend of his.
There is a wonderful supporting cast of characters (not all necessarily very nice types) such as the formidable Jared Dane, Elisha and Spankin Hankins, Crider Peel and his little daughter Catrina, Tyne Fawley, Elmer Scaggs, Emil Durand and Min, Katie Rose Rouse, Orvile Tucker, the odious Lieutenant Archer, Captain Edwin Cardin (who knew the painter Whistler) and his daughter, the beautiful but vacuous Victoria. Even minor characters such as Lin Chow the launderer and Mrs Murphy who owns the boarding house are delightfully portrayed. "“None of it’s any of my affair,” said Mrs. Murphy. “And I don’t go about stickin’ my nose in other people’s business, you understand.”"
Quotes
"Roman Hasford’s first weekend in Kansas was like a great battle, or perhaps a tornado that blew the barn away—a time for him to remember through all his days. At first he saw everything, sucking each scene into his consciousness like a sponge sucking in water, as though afraid even a single drop might escape."
"They came like streams of termites into lands that really belonged to someone else, and when there was some dispute about who should have the right to stay, the army was put in motion to protect the interests of citizens who sprang from a nation with a biblically steadfast belief that it was destined to populate and rule the entire continent."
"Sometimes there was justification for alarm, because most of the warlike tribes in the buffalo lands were getting damned tired of white men coming into their country without even a beg-your-pardon."
"It was all that Roman Hasford had expected, and much more. He marked it in memory for years ahead as the single point when his fortunes changed. Viewed in retrospect, it was exhilarating, terrible, and wonderful, all at the same time."
"There were a lot of books in Mr. B.’ s car and I spent considerable time in reading between visits to the hospital. There was one called Oliver Twist by an Englishman named Dickens and because I couldn’t finish it in the time I was there, Mr. B. inscribed his name in it and gave me the book and it lies now beside my hand as I write in this diary. It’s what they call a novel, a story of imagination such as I have never read before, and it’s sad but I hope by the time I reach the end things will work out all right for the hero."
"The river was a dark mirror in the night, with a dull shine that faded into the Missouri shore at the far side, the horizon there outlined, an uncertain fringe along the bottom of the night sky. Only the strongest stars were visible, because there was a high veil of thin cloud, the threat of coming autumn, that shut off the more timid ones. Somewhere in the night above where Roman Hasford sat on the sorrel, there was a flight of southward-migrating geese, and their honking gave a ghostly echo to all the river’s quiet little noises."
November 3, 2014
started as a 3 star but worked its way up tobeing a 5 star at the ending. Not like other older western novels which I am used to but just different enough to make me want to read some more of this authors novels.
July 23, 2019
Terrific book
This is an interesting story written by a master storyteller. He brings the past to life with sights, sounds, words, deeds, references and excellent research all woven carefully and accurately into a fascinating story. Great writing. Enjoy!
This is an interesting story written by a master storyteller. He brings the past to life with sights, sounds, words, deeds, references and excellent research all woven carefully and accurately into a fascinating story. Great writing. Enjoy!
April 4, 2023
In this volume Jones continues his western historical series centering on the fictional Hasford/Pay families with this one highlighting young Roman Hasford.
The Civil War is over and with the return of his father from the battlefields of Virginia life at the Hasford farm in the Ozark country of Arkansas returns to a semblance of normal.
Young Roman Hasford now 18 wants to strike out on his own seeking adventure in the territories of the West. Leaving his home for the first time he stops at St. Louis to visit his older sister Calpurnia now married to Allan Pay and their baby boy Eben (who would play central roles in some of Jones' books to come).
From there he sets off to see buffalo and the Cheyenne and would eventually do both but these experiences would be far from what he expected.
Roman becomes a successful businessman, makes memorable friends of the great, humble and ruthless, and also some enemies, falls in and out of love and finds his ethics of right and wrong constantly challenged. Along the way Roman will find more adventure than he can handle transform himself from a quick-tempered teenager into a mature and respected young man in the five years he would spend in Kansas.
This is a masterful, heartwarming tale by an author that seldom disappoints set in the period between "Elkhorn Tavern" and "Winding Stair".
The Civil War is over and with the return of his father from the battlefields of Virginia life at the Hasford farm in the Ozark country of Arkansas returns to a semblance of normal.
Young Roman Hasford now 18 wants to strike out on his own seeking adventure in the territories of the West. Leaving his home for the first time he stops at St. Louis to visit his older sister Calpurnia now married to Allan Pay and their baby boy Eben (who would play central roles in some of Jones' books to come).
From there he sets off to see buffalo and the Cheyenne and would eventually do both but these experiences would be far from what he expected.
Roman becomes a successful businessman, makes memorable friends of the great, humble and ruthless, and also some enemies, falls in and out of love and finds his ethics of right and wrong constantly challenged. Along the way Roman will find more adventure than he can handle transform himself from a quick-tempered teenager into a mature and respected young man in the five years he would spend in Kansas.
This is a masterful, heartwarming tale by an author that seldom disappoints set in the period between "Elkhorn Tavern" and "Winding Stair".
May 26, 2019
If you don’t need a book that moves super fast but is still a great read, this series of books is for you. The author is from Fayetteville and it has lots of good history and details from the late 1800’s. This one is about the expansion of out West. Roman, and Ozark Arkansan moves to Kansas to find his way. The book is very detailed about the daily life, the railroad ways, and corruption that followed the western expansion. I’m now going back to read Elkhorn Tavern, which features the Battle of Pea Ridge. Roman is a figure in that story as well! Happy reading!
November 26, 2017
Westerns aren't my normal genre, but this was a good sequel to Elkhorn Tavern.
September 17, 2022
The third book in the Roman Hasford series. I really love the characters and the author's style of writing. Can't wait to read more from him.
September 4, 2014
Roman is a little bit like Per Hansa in Giants in the Earth. Things seem to happen easily to him. Anyway It's an interesting saga about the 1860's and 70's in Kansas.
September 12, 2013
Just reread this book again. It's the finest "opening of the west" book I have ever read. It skillfully tells a "coming of age" story in a very organic way.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews