THE HORN AND THE FOREST

Indiana in pre- and post-Revolutionary times had two major problems that are examined here: subsistence and a race problem. Dr. Jonathan Raoul married a Potawatome maid, fathered twins and lived out a respected life in the Indiana settlement. His son Nathan, inheriting the best aspects of both races, has a harder row to hoe-- in sympathy with, but not part of, his Indian neighbors and (as the settlement fills up) forced into competition with clannish, insulting white men. Trained as a doctor by his father and as an Indian by his grandfather, Nathan's adventures involve the man-against-nature and man-against-disease variety and his solution to man-against-malcontent is to answer the horn that calls to restless men and move further West. It's a very simple story-line, with echoes of London in the nature scenes; echoes of J.F. Cooper in the vision of the noble savage: and, regrettably, echoes of Zane Grey in the over-decorated simple-style prose. The glimpses of settlement life and affairs show the results of careful research, but this perspective is distorted by the toweringly heroic proportions of Nathan and his father. A regional market.