I TAKE THIS LAND

by Richard Powell ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

To anyone who knows the west Coast of Florida- round about Fort Myers- this new story by the author of Pioneer. Go Home! will carry tremendous impact. To others, it will open up a new facet of relatively contemporary pioneering pushed to excesses by the exploiters. Most readers will find it a holding story, with its violence, its lusts, its toughness, and the perceptive handling of Ward Campion, whose passion for the land that he had won in a poker game dominated his life. Young when the chance came, he gambled everything- pulled a fast one on an older man who considered himself immune-and then found himself at the beginning of a strange road. He still had to get his railroad; he still had to win the cooperation of the local people- who were satisfied with being a backwater; he still had battles on all sides. And in the struggle, he lost the idealism-and held the dream; he rode roughshod over everything- even the woman he loved. There are political problems here- as well as economic and personal. One pulls away from what Ward Campion becomes- and yet senses the inner hurt. There are plots and counterplot here, skillfully held together. And there's a picture of the meteoric rise and fall and rise again of Florida- boom or bust- and of the people who made her. Better written than his earlier work, but lacking the twist of humor that made Pioneer. Go Home! unforgettable. This shows another side of Richard Powell.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1962

Categories: FICTION