Shane (novel)
Shane is a western novel by Jack Schaefer published in 1949. It was initially published in 1946 in three parts in "Argosy" magazine, and originally titled "Rider from Nowhere". The novel has been printed in seventy or more editions, and translated into over 30 languages, and was adapted into the 1953 film starring Alan Ladd. Plot. The story is set in 1889 Wyoming, when the Wyoming Territory was still open to the Homestead Act of 1862. It is narrated by a homesteader's son, Bob Starrett. The original unclaimed land surrounding the Starretts' homestead had been used by  a cattle driver named Luke Fletcher before being claimed by Bob's father, Joe Starrett, along with 12 other homesteaders. Fletcher had settled there first, although he could only claim as a homestead. He wants to expand his herd; homesteads in the area would hinder its growth. The title character, Shane, is a mysterious stranger who rides into and then out of the lives of the Starrett family, "a man who seemed to come from nowhere and appeared equally determined to pass on to nowhere." He is typically quiet, always silent about his past. He does not wear his gun , and yet everyone seems to understand that he is a dangerous man. Joe Starrett hires Shane as a hand on his farm, and Shane puts aside his handsome Western clothes and buys dungarees. He then helps the homesteaders to avoid intimidation by Fletcher and his men, who try to get them to abandon their farms. With Joe Starrett's leadership and Shane's help, the farmers resist Fletcher. Shane is forced into a gun battle. Themes. One of the most obvious themes of "Shane" is the tension between the fence-favoring homesteaders and the open-range cattle man Luke Fletcher . In the book, the homesteaders are shown as the small-time operators threatened by a powerful, wealthy man with a large herd of cattle and a government beef contract. In later years, author Jack Schaefer would regret this aspect of his novel, that "Shane" was, "aiding the advance of settlement, giving his push to the accelerating onrush of the very civilization I find deserving contempt." On a personal level, the story deals with a man's attempt to leave behind a violent past, and the decisions he must take when the homesteaders who have befriended him are faced with danger  beyond their experience. The story, seen through the eyes of a young boy, is also a coming of age story. The boy is puzzled by Shane and his hidden violence, who is beyond his sheltered experience, but comes to trust, love and venerate him. Times book editor Jack Miles wrote that “What makes ‘Shane’ different, what makes it a classic among Westerns, is that it is a story told by a boy. Schaefer understood...that the Western is an American boy's dream of the world as it should be.” Shane also demonstrates Schaefer’s strong focus on the social  bonds between men, as in the scene when Shane and Joe Starrett uproot an old tree stump. The section ends, “an old stump on its side with root ends making a strange pattern against the glow of the sun sinking behind the far mountains and two men looking over it into each other’s eyes.” Critical reception. Richard S. Wheeler has written of "Shane" and its author: "This was Jack Schaefer’s first novel. He preferred in later years to write stories less mythic and more attuned to the real West... Although he is little known, and the volume of  his work is small, he surely ranks as one of this nation’s greatest." The novel has frequently been honored by the Western Writers of America as one of the best of the modern genre. Marc Simmons wrote, "By any standard of measurement, Jack Schaefer's Shane rates as a classic in the literature of the American West. William Nauenberg wrote in The Objective Standard that ""Shane" by Jack Schaefer is an invigorating tale of heroism that celebrates the fundamental power of the good in human life and its ability to defeat evil." Publication. Section::::"Argosy" Version. "Shane" was originally published  by "Argosy", an American pulp magazine. It was published as "Rider from Nowhere", a three-part serial, beginning in July 1946. This version was also somewhat shorter. Most notably, it did not include the famous early scene in which Shane and Joe Starrett bond while working together to remove a large stump. Houghton Mifflin. In 1949, Houghton Mifflin issued a revised and expanded version of the Argosy stories.