Shorty Harris, or the Price of Gold: A Novel (Literature of the American West, 3)

Americans are seekers. Shorty Harris, or The Price of Gold is the story of a legendary desert prospector who spent his whole life searching for gold and, when he found it, gave it away. He died broke in 1934 and wrote his own epitaph: "Here lies Shorty Harris, a single blanket jackass prospector." William W. Bevis's sweeping western novel begins during the gold rush of 1849 and brings Shorty from violin lessons in Providence, Rhode Island, to the mining camps of Nevada, then follows the misfortunes and mistakes that leave him, finally, estranged from family and society, facing only himself. But this is also the story of a desert consciousness, and Death Valley is a major character. As Shorty slowly and painfully learns the land - the desert plants and animals, and their subtle, necessary rhythms of waiting, finding, and letting go - his search also becomes, ironically, a quest for harmony with the land he exploits. The story of a gold prospector at the turn of the century. He is Shorty Harris, a man who abandons his wife and daughter, kills a rival and twice strikes it rich, only to give his wealth away and die in poverty. -- Provided by publisher