The Dark Cloud

by Thomas Boyd

Thomas Boyd is best known for "Through the Wheat," considered the greatest American novel of WW I. Boyd was a Marine, saw much fighting action, and was deeply influenced by his wartime experience. Later he wrote for newspapers, and while running a bookstore and writing the literary page of the St. Paul daily newspaper, was befriended by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who recommended him to Maxwell Perkins. Boyd published several books with Perkins, including "The Dark Cloud," originally published in 1924. It is the first of Boyd's several historical novels, telling the story of a British scout in Indian territory during the American Revolution. The "western" frontier of America was then Ohio. Boyd was fascinated by the moral issues facing everyday people in times of strife, and takes the reader directly into the daily lives of individuals trying to find their way. His strong feeling for the average person facing great challenges gives strength to the story and the characters who live it.

280 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2011

About the author

Thomas Boyd was raised by his mother's family due to his father's death before he was born. While still in school, he and a friend enlisted in the US Marine Corps and saw service in France, where he was gassed in 1918.

Upon discharge from the occupation forces in 1919, Boyd tried several occupations before becoming a writer for newspapers in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. He opened a bookstore, Kilmarnock Books, in St. Paul, which became the locus of literary figures, including Sinclair Lewis. He was urged to write and produced the 1923 novel, Through the Wheat, based in part on his own war experiences.

Boyd later remarried and became interested in Socialist causes during the Depression, eventually running as the Communist candidate for governor of Vermont.