The Tom-Walker - by Mari Sandoz (Paperback)

About the Book

Reprint. Originally published: New York: Dial Press, 1947.

Book Synopsis

A bold, biting novel by the author of Old Jules and Crazy Horse, The Tom-Walker spans three generations in a Midwestern family.

The patriarch, Milt Stone, who lost a leg fighting in Grant's army, is the Tom-Walker, circus slang for man on stilts. After the Civil War he takes his family west to the Missouri country. There he gains a reputation as a raconteur and as a passionate defender of the little man who works hard, fights the wars, and gets squeezed out by powerful interests. He lives to see his son and grandson fight in World War I and World War II, respectively, and return home from those wars, maimed like him, only to have to resume a fight just to stay alive.

Crowded with living characters, The Tom-Walker never loses the larger view of American history. From the Gilded Age to the Atomic Age, everybody is "trying to be either a Jay Gould or a Jesse James, out for easy money, everybody [is] wanting to be king of something: mines, railroads, cattle, outlaws, anything." How people like the Stones fare is the story within this story.

From the Back Cover

The patriarch, Milt Stone, who lost a leg fighting in Grant's army, is the Tom-Walker, circus slang for man on stilts. After the Civil War he takes his family west to the Missouri country. There he gains a reputation as a raconteur and as a passionate defender of the little man who works hard, fights the wars, and gets squeezed out by powerful interests. He lives to see his son and grandson fight in World War I and World War II, respectively, and return home from those wars, maimed like him, only to have to resume a fight just to stay alive.

Review Quotes

""
"There is a good deal of America in the book, and the narrative teems with violent energy."--"New Yorker"


"A vigorous and thoughtful novel. "--"New York Times"


"Rich and warm and extravagant and deeply rooted in what her America has been and is."--"New York Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review"


"A vigorous and thoughtful novel. "-- "New York Times"


"""There is a good deal of America in the book, and the narrative teems with violent energy."-"New Yorker"

"A vigorous and thoughtful novel. "-"New York Times"