Et cetera : What We're Reading: Silvermane

Review of ‘Silvermane’ by Zane Grey

The ‘assignment’ was to choose and read a book about a school. I’ve never been one to follow the rules, so I settled on a Western that combined a mail-order bride with a new school to be built for the kids on several large ranches out west.

Four ornery cowboys with too much imagination catch sight of an advertisement in a newspaper from back east. A schoolteacher with a need for fresh clean air to improve her health has posted an ad for a job and states that she is ‘not over forty.’ As a prank, they write a letter in response to the middle-aged schoolmarm, signing the name of their boss, ranch owner Frank Owens. Imagine their shock and fear when they receive, by return mail, an acceptance of their offer and the news that the teacher is arriving in a mere five hours. One of the cowpokes says to another, ‘What can we do in that time?’ to which his companion replies, ‘I can get drunk!’ As you would expect, chaos ensues with a rather awkward meeting and a time of reckoning with the Boss.

This short story is one of a set of novellas, originally printed in McCall magazine as a serial in 1926. Because I love westerns, this was of particular interest to me. The name of the story is ‘From Missouri’ and it was great fun to read. Zane Grey is one of my favorites – try this and see if you love it like I did! The book is available at VPL in large type.

~Connie, Library Assistant