Burnt Creek

Truly one thing can be said about Ernest Haycox: The man knew how to tell a story about everyday people in everyday situations. This collection of stories about a small town in central Oregon relates how the pioneers, the homesteaders, the merchants, and the rest settled the country and thus tells the story of America. Although published at the beginning of his career, these interconnected stories are the type and kind of stories he really wished to write. See the book, On A Silver Desert, a biography of Ernest Haycox by his son. Yes, Ernest Haycox compromised his writing style and content to be able to keep body and soul, and family together, by writing what the "slick, sophisticated, big" magazines of the day wanted. But he had no choice, if he wanted to pay the bills. Yet, he never lost sight of what he really wanted to write, and near the end of his life completed two novels which came the closest to that goal. Had he lived I am sure he would have written the extensive history of Oregon through the lives, actions, and passions of the citizens of a typical town in Oregon such as he wrote about in this book. No Haycox book is your "typical" western as each explores the depths of each character set against a backdrop the likes of which he knew so well having lived and explored the areas he wrote about in full detail. This is a good book well worth reading and owning.