Hamlin Garland

This 1892 novel tells of a young orphan girl growing up in the American West. Two kind bachelors take her in, but clear complications arise as a result of this unconventional family.

Readers of Hamlin Garland's collection of short stories Main-Travelled Roads will also enjoy Prairie Folks, which Garland considered a companion volume, as the stories feature many of the same characters and continue to explore the harsh realities of farm life with its moments of exultation.

Here is the story of Black Mose, who exemplifies the courageous, self-reliant cowboy who heads to the mountains to escape a confining and guilt-ridden past for freedom in the untamed west. Garland based this engrossing Western on the lives of his playmates in Iowa, many of whom hoped to run away to become scouts or cowboys.

Hamlin Garland followed up his collection of short stories titled Main-Travelled Roads with Other Main-Travelled Roads. Unsparing in their depiction of the harsh realities of Midwestern farm life, these stories are quintessential examples of Garland's writing. Stories include, "William Bacon's Man," "A Fair Exile," and "A Preacher's Love Story."

The young protagonist of this novel is gifted with psychic powers, which take control of her, entrapping her in trances. Dreaming of a normal life, she is rescued by a scientist who believes she should be allowed to determine her own fate. Complete with séances and ghosts, this tale was inspired by Hamlin Garland's interest in psychic phenomena.

With a newfound interest in the West and its problems, Hamlin Garland turned his acclaimed realistic eye westward in the novel Her Mountain Lover, which follows the journey of a Colorado miner to England where he is supposed to sell a share of his mine, but does not complete the task without experiences that lead to an unusual romance.

A literary success when it was published in 1902, Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop follows the trials of Captain George Curtis at the Indian Agency at Pine Ridge. In this engrossing novel, Hamlin creates a romantic adventure story about the unjust treatment of the American Indian by cattlemen, drawing on his experiences visiting American Indian reservations.