THE WEST OF H. L. DAVIS Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Potts, James Thompson, 1947- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 07/10/2021 00:04:07 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289551 INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. 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DAVIS by James Thompson Potts A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 7 7 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my direction by James Thompson Potts entitled THE WEST OF H. L. DAVIS be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ^Yo- 3- // <?/ 7 7 Dissertation Director Date As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read this dissertation and agree that it may be presented for final defense. •A-A/WMTU ^/ig/77 cA. tr. // -/"! 7 y w/#1. Uu\Uic4. A hg /y ; \4 Ahkhi MllA Ad J Ar/ 77 Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent on the candidate's adequate performance and defense thereof at the final oral examination. STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: ACKNOWLE DGMEN TS I wish to express my gratitude to the Chairman of my committee, Professor Arthur Kay, for his expert advice and guidance. I wish also to thank the members of my committee, Cecil Robinson, Gerald McNiece, Jack Huggins, and Lawrence Evers, for their helpful, specific suggestions. In addition, I would like to thank my parents, Mr. and Mrs. James T. Potts, Sr., to whom this dissertation is dedicated, for their encouragement during its preparation. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT v CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 The Significance of Place 1 The Essays and the Short Stories 18 II. HONEY IN THE HORN 53 III. BEULAH LAND AND HARP OF A THOUSAND STRINGS ... 81 IV. WINDS OF MORNING 113 V. THE DISTANT MUSIC 139 VI. CONCLUSION 158 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 187 iv ABSTRACT H. L. Davis' essays, short stories, and novels pro­ vide an interpretation of the various ways in which American Western man and the surrounding landscape may interact. He delineates man's physical and emotional sense of place. He offers a coherent connection between past and present by recreating in his historical novels the quintessential elements of the pioneer personality that enabled people to adjust to the gradual disappearance of the frontier. Perseverance, resiliency, and accommodation contributed substantially to the American character. In Kettle of Fire and in his short stories Davis clarifies his feelings toward his home state, Oregon, a representative area. In his essays he humorously, satiri­ cally attacks the stupidity of those who misused nature's provisions. They failed to establish themselves so as to develop a sense of place. He is contemptuous of those townspeople who failed to recognize that generosity and flexibility were as necessary as determination and physical endurance. Davis admires those people who attune their wants to that which nature provides and who perceive all that nature makes available. He finds ennobling the ability of some who continue struggling while recognizing the meager results of their lives. v vi Davis' finest short stories display techniques and themes echoed and amplified in the novels. Most signifi­ cantly, he characterizes by employing humorous metaphors, exaggeration, and portraiture, and he uses natural symbolism to reflect themes. He describes how the potentially re­ warding experience of town life is stultified by vicious- ness. He creates emotional grotesques by showing how con­ tradictory character motives may result in crippling isola­ tion. He respects those who strive to achieve limited goals while suffering duress, for only then, he believes, do they realize the full significance of being human. Other stories illustrate how tests of physical and emotional strength contribute to character formation; his protagonists, bloodied and fatigued, learn the limits of their abilities. Honey in the Horn depicts the ruin of those obsessed by money, sex, religion, or eccentricity. Yet he evokes hope by portraying an energetic, restless generation of pioneers. These people affirm Davis' belief that the every­ day tasks, complications produced by familial ties, and the difficulties presented by attempting to establish a viable relationship remain challenges which continue to add meaning to human lives. In Beulah Land Davis depicts the punishing struggle to find an earthly eden or Beulah. His protagonists realize that Beulah Land is any of those places where one shares the struggle to survive, where one cherishes the land, and where vii kinship flourishes in the heart. In Harp of a Thousand Strings, Davis chooses the founding and early development of a frontier town to illustrate how European history in­ fluences American history and to suggest that various people involved in the creation of the town contributed to the greater good of man. The last novels, Winds of Morning and The Distant Music:, are Davis' final, fully realized assessment. Each novel portrays individuals searching for significance within their lives. Winds of Morning contrasts a heroic Western past with a tawdry present, invigorating experiences in the open country with mediocrity and deadening routine in the towns, and pioneer promise with modern disappointment. Davis advises that one must adopt a tempered attitude toward life in a nonheroic but certainly not ignoble age. In The Distant Music ordinary people look to each other to find meaning within their lives. Davis stresses that each must experience and accept in his own way his growing inter­ dependent relationship with the land. Those who succeed accommodate to changes in the modernizing West. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The West has retained a national fascination throughout our history, so much so that many Americans remain unwilling to recognize its com­ plexity, its continuing life along with its power­ ful past. Yet in the West there have been, and there are, writers and scholars who won't settle for mere fantasy. They have produced solid, imaginative, Western literature based upon those powerful human experiences that transcend region without abandoning regional uniqueness. More importantly, readers all over the country are opening themselves to the real literature of the American West and, consequently, to the West itself.1 The Significance of Place H. L. Davis is primarily a regional writer; he wrote about the settlement and development of the American West from the 1850's until the 1920's. Because historical regionalists are concerned with evoking a credible, accurate image of a certain area at a certain time, they are espe­ cially attentive to the details of the setting and milieu, that is, to developing a sense of place.