Journal of the Southwest

Stanley Vestal: Champion of the Old West by Ray TassinReview by: Dwight V. SwainArizona and the West, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Autumn, 1974), pp. 294-295Published by: Journal of the SouthwestStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40168473 .

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294 ARIZONA and the WEST

products as far afield as Manila and Tahiti. He found markets in San Francisco and Hawaii. Equally important to the finding of the markets was the problem of receiving pay through notes, letters of credit, and merchandise. McLoughlin employed every last ounce of expertise and intelligence to the success of his busi- ness under these adverse conditions. The result is a fascinating story that gives us a new perspective on business on the Northwest frontier. McLoughlin's success, while his American competitors sat vainly waiting for purchasers to stop, may well explain some of the virulence of the hatred that led to stripping him of his

possessions by legal chicanery. Sampson has done an outstanding job of editing the correspondence. The

notes are informative and helpful. The reader is further aided by an excellent

appendix of biographical sketches of the principal figures mentioned in the text. In addition, the biography of McLoughlin that appears in the introduction is the best yet done of this major figure of Pacific Northwest history. The work is a must for every serious collection of Western history.

Francis D. Haines, Jr.

Professor Haines, a member of the history faculty at Southern Oregon College, Ashland, is an authority on the fur trading period in the Pacific Northwest.

STANLEY VESTAL: Champion of the Old West. By Ray Tassin. Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1973. 299 pp. $1 1.00.

To write a biography is difficult enough. To write the biography of a biogra- pher stands as an assignment to put any writer on his mettle. Ray Tassin has faced such a task competently. His book in all likelihood will take its place as the standard work on "Stanley Vestal" (Walter S. Campbell), a man who, perhaps more than any other, helped to give White America an honest version of Plains Indian history.

Author of seven frontier biographies (including Kit Carson, Jim Bridget, and the famed Sitting Bull: Champion of the Sioux), seven histories (The Mis- souri, Short Grass Country, The Old Santa Fe Trail), four writing texts, and a wide range of other material, Campbell's work won him wide respect among his Indian friends. He was the adopted son of both White Bull (probably the man who killed Custer at the Little Big Horn) and One Bull, nephews of Sitting Bull.

Born on the Kansas frontier near Wichita in 1887, Vestal/Campbell grew up in Oklahoma Territory, then went to Oxford as the new State of Oklahoma's first Rhodes Scholar. Following an unhappy go at high school teaching in Louis- ville and service as a field artillery captain in World War I, he settled down to an English professorship at the University of Oklahoma. Boyhood fascination with the Plains Indians and the mountain men who shared their ways never ebbed, however. And he lived with a driving determination to win recognition as a writer.

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REVIEWS 295

Research in depth into Indian history, and books setting forth his findings, were natural outgrowths. Later, he won acclaim in yet a third area, setting up the country's most successful training program for novice writers. That he did it all in the face of debt, family problems, and the frequent hostility of his fellow academicians is remarkable indeed. In addition, through it all, he remained ever so much a human being. Ever courtly on campus, he made his home a virtual museum of Indian artifacts. (Some of us used to say that if an Indian revolution ever came, Walter stood prepared to outfit a Cheyenne war party.) The end of the bookcase in his living room was pockmarked with dents made by arrows shot into it from his bed. Neighbors gaped when a buffalo skull lay months

bleaching on his roof. A lonely man in the years following divorce from a wife he adored, he frequently would invite some student met on the street to join him for dinner.

Tassin traces his man's career with careful attention to letter and to spirit. Nineteen chapters carry Vestal from birth to his death in 1957; from Oklahoma's

Cheyenne-Arapaho country to the French Riviera; from the Yaddo writers colony to the hill he homesteaded in New Mexico. Of particular interest is his anecdote- laden account of Vestal's travels and interviewing techniques in gathering material from old Indians. The few factual errors which creep in are minor.

His writing and/or proofreading, on the other hand, on occasion prove awkward. ("Some of the short fiction are classics, however, and far superior to his book-length fiction.") There also are times when chronology grows hazy: Vestal gives White Bull a cavalry saber on page 163, and again on page 167. Were there two sabers, or is the issue merely one of confusion? But this is nit-

picking, and I know it. Stanley Vestal, Champion of the Old West stands as a solid and worthwhile work. Bibliography, index, and photos augment the text.

Dr. Tassin, a former Professional Writing student under Campbell, pres- ently is professor and chairman of the journalism department at Oklahoma's Central State University.

Dwight V. Swain

The reviewer is a former member of the journalism faculty at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, and the author of numerous works on the Western scene. His Techniques of the Selling Writer has just been reissued.

TO POSSESS THE LAND: A Biography of Arthur Rochford Manby. By Frank Waters. Chicago: Swallow Press Inc., 1973. 287 pp. $8.95.

This book will undoubtedly be read with pleasure by many persons, and it is as informative as it is readable. The story of New Mexican land grants is

intriguing; the Antonio Martinez Grant, acquired by Arthur Manby from the

grantees by scheming tactics, is no exception. In the popular fancy land grant

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