copyright MCMXXX (1930); The Book League of America publishers, New York; hardbound; quite good condition with unmarked pages; minor age foxing of pages - see pics; no dust jacket.
Description -
Cimarron is a novel by Edna Ferber, published in April 1930 and based on development in Oklahoma after the Land Rush. The book was adapted into a critically acclaimed film of the same name in 1931 through RKO Pictures. In 1960, the story was again adapted for the screen by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, to meager success.
The Oklahoma Land Rush (also called the Oklahoma Land Race and Cherokee Strip Land Run) plays a pivotal role in both the novel and film adaptations. "Manifest destiny" and the desperation of the settlers involved in the rush provides the opening drama and sets the stage for the twists and turns in the book. Every settler is desperate to stake his claim on the best piece of land (near water).
Cimarron derives its name from the Cimarron Territory. The Cimarron Territory was an unrecognized name for the No Man's Land, an unsettled area of the West and Midwest, especially lands once inhabited by Native American tribes such as the Cherokee and Sioux. In 1886 the government declared such lands open to settlement. At the time of the novel's opening, Oklahoma is one such "Cimarron Territory," though in actuality the historical setting of the novel is somewhere in the Cherokee Outlet, also known as the Cherokee Strip, and probably the city of Guthrie, Oklahoma.
The novel is set in the Oklahoma of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It follows the lives of Yancey and Sabra Cravat, beginning with Yancey's tale of his participation in the 1893 land rush. They emigrate from Wichita, Kansas, to the fictional town of Osage, Oklahoma with their son Cim and—unknowingly—a black boy named Isaiah. In Osage, the Cravats print their newspaper, the Oklahoma Wigwam, and build their fortune amongst Indian disputes, outlaws, and the discovery of oil in Oklahoma.
Upon its publication, Cimarron was a sensation in America and came to epitomize an era in American history. It was the best selling novel of 1930.