Books: Prize Novel

BROTHERS IN THE WEST—Robert Raynolds—Harper ($2.50).

Every two years since 1922 Publisher Harper has held a $10,000 Prize Novel Contest. Last winner was Expatriate Julian Green's The Dark Journey, a well-written bad seller. This time Publisher Harper, twice shy, has given his prize-money for a book that should not make his ledgers see red. Brothers in the West will not appeal to the precious few but should be read, wept over, thoroughly enjoyed by the common-or-garden reader.

Author Raynolds' tale is of two brothers, men of stature and sinew, who roam together through the Western U.S. forests and are devoted to each other. The indeterminate time is laid somewhere in the 19th Century, well before civilization had made romance an undesirable alien. But Author Raynolds, though he is at some pains to set a convincing forest-&-wilderness scene, is not concerned with being historically accurate. The Brothers talk sometimes like minor prophets and sometimes like sophomores; but you don't mind: it is all a kind of legend, with a good enough yarn to carry it.

Men marked by prowess but by no particular ambition, David and Charles live hard but enjoyably in the wilderness, go on great sprees when they come to town, feel no need of a change. Then one day in the forest they run into measly little Grosjean and his desirable woman Karin. Both the brothers want Karin but David wants her most, so Charles helps him tie up Grosjean, kidnap the girl. Grosjean pursues them, somehow manages to catch up, shoots Charles. It is a shrewd blow, but Charles recovers. Such is Grosjean's remorse that he is allowed to join the brothers' menage. They drift to Mexico, collect more horses, women, children, a priest. Karin, tired of wandering, wants a house, so they decide to marry their women and settle down. Their community is settled, thriving, increasing, when aging Karin dies. The brothers leave all the rest, take to the trail once more, wander till they are feeble old men. On top of a mountain Death comes for them together.

The Author. Robert Raynolds had reached the age of 28 without getting one of his stories published. Born in Santa Fe, N. Mex., in the room in the Governor's Palace where the late Author Lew Wallace is supposed to have worked on Ben Hur, he toiled in coal mines, a cement mill, a silver mine, on a trade magazine; but kept his literary ambitions. Though a graduate of Lafayette he spent two earlier years at Princeton, where the Nassau Literary Magazine encouraged him by accepting a sonnet, a sketch. A year ago he left his editorial job, took his wife, two children and many rejected manuscripts to Georgetown, Conn., set himself to write his prize-winning Brothers in the West.