The Searchers
The Making of an American Legend
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
New York Times Bestseller
Named one of the best books of the year by:
Parade
The Guardian
Kirkus
Library Journal
The true story behind the classic Western The Searchers by Pulitzer Prize-wining writer Glenn Frankel that the New York Times calls "A vivid, revelatory account of John Ford's 1956 masterpiece."
In 1836 in East Texas, nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped by Comanches. She was raised by the tribe and eventually became the wife of a warrior. Twenty-four years after her capture, she was reclaimed by the U.S. cavalry and Texas Rangers and restored to her white family, to die in misery and obscurity. Cynthia Ann's story has been told and re-told over generations to become a foundational American tale. The myth gave rise to operas and one-act plays, and in the 1950s to a novel by Alan LeMay, which would be adapted into one of Hollywood's most legendary films, The Searchers, "The Biggest, Roughest, Toughest... and Most Beautiful Picture Ever Made!" directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne.
Glenn Frankel, beginning in Hollywood and then returning to the origins of the story, creates a rich and nuanced anatomy of a timeless film and a quintessentially American myth. The dominant story that has emerged departs dramatically from documented history: it is of the inevitable triumph of white civilization, underpinned by anxiety about the sullying of white women by "savages." What makes John Ford's film so powerful, and so important, Frankel argues, is that it both upholds that myth and undermines it, baring the ambiguities surrounding race, sexuality, and violence in the settling of the West and the making of America.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
John Ford's classic 1956 western film The Searchers, starring John Wayne, drew inspiration from the 19th-century kidnappings of Cynthia Ann Parker: first as a child by Comanche warriors, and over two decades later as a wife and mother by misguided whites seeking to rescue her from her captors and adoptive family. In this powerful dual history, Frankel (Beyond the Promised Land), winner of a Pulitzer in 1989 for his reporting on Israel and the Middle East for the Washington Post, dexterously interweaves the testosterone-fueled Hollywood backstory of the film with the bloody turmoil that too often characterized relations between Native Americans and settlers pushing west. While the behind-the-scenes look at the classic flick is entertaining, the drama of the movie set pales in comparison to Frankel's riveting depiction of the real-life tragedy, out of which arose an unlikely hero: Quanah, Parker's elder son and half-Comanche warrior turned ambassador of peace, whose existence paved the way for a touching reunion between generations of his Texan and Comanche descendants. Cynthia's story is one of a heartbroken yet tough survivor, and Frankel's retelling is a gripping portrayal of a mesmerizing period of American history. B&w photos.