Brazos and Mary, their troubles
and their joys, become an intimate and lasting part of the reader's experience.
Their way of life is rich and zestful, difficult and exhilarating, because they
live close to the earth, come to grips with elemental forces. As Brazos himself
puts it, "Everything is new here and you have to fight like hell for it.
If it isn't cloudbursts, it’s fire, or its wind, or plain cussedness, or all of
them put together.”
By its broad scale, a largeness
that matches the red land, its natural dignity, its racy familiarity with time
and scene, its excellent style, The
Saddle and the Plow is distinguished fiction, a splendid historical novel.
This special edition of THE SADDLE
AND THE PLOW by Ross McLaury Taylor has been made available to the Armed Forces
of the United States through an arrangement with the original publisher. The
Bobbs-Merrill Company, New York.
Editions for the Armed Services,
Inc., a non-profit organization established by the Council on Books in Wartime