by Richard Subber | Nov 10, 2026 | American history, Book reviews, Books, History, Joys of reading, Language
…he started the “Western” genre…
Book review:
Stories of the Early West
by Bret Harte (1836-1902)
He chronicled the California Gold Rush days
New York: Platt & Munk, Publishers, 1964
512 pages
Here are 17 “Exciting Tales of Mining and Frontier Days,” courtesy of the 19th century writer who made those days famous. It’s reasonably fair to say that Bret Harte started the “Western” tradition in American literature.
He had what it took to do so. Harte lived the life of the hardy souls who streamed into the gold mining camps, and he wrote about them with authority, compassion, and decent respect.
Of course, like you, I’ve heard about “The Outcasts of Poker Flats” throughout my life. Stories of the Early West has been on my shelves for a few years—finally, this week, I grabbed it and read “Poker Flats” and “Tennessee’s Partner” and “The Luck of Roaring Camp” and a few others.
Harte is no mean story teller.
Walter Van Tilburg Clark suggests in his Foreword that Harte shared some talent and style with the likes of Jack London, Mark Twain and O. Henry. Naturally, I think it’s beyond dispute that each of those four had a memorably distinctive style.
I’ll take O. Henry (William Sydney Porter, 1862-1910) any day. O. Henry had panache that Harte probably never imagined in his dreams. From a technical point of view, I suggest that Harte wasted some of the money he saved for a writing coach, and he could have benefited from a more attentive editor—I get it, Harte’s distinctive style is colloquial, yet it tends here and there to be stuffy, approaching careless, sometimes slapdash.
One gets the impression that Harte was dashing off Stories of the Early West in a raggedy notebook, perhaps with the stub of a pencil, perhaps in poor light…it’s not real clear that Harte was real interested in re-reading and refining his work.
These “Exciting Tales” in Stories of the Early West are rough gems.
Maybe Mr. Oakhurst talked just the way Harte says he did.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
A Farewell to Arms (book review)
classic Ernest Hemingway
with relentlessly realistic dialogue…
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many waters: more poems with 53 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Nov 7, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
the in-between time…
Interlude
I dither, partly knowing
that the change advances slowly,
in languid tempo,
shuffling images dulled
by the absence of the sun,
partly knowing that an advent
takes good time
and does not give it back,
partly knowing that the season
brings no freshness,
no joy that had been lost,
partly knowing that bald winter
is the portent of the scattering leaves…
I am content to do the waiting.
October 24, 2018
My poem “Interlude” was published in my fourth collection of 55 poems, As with another eye: Poems of exactitude. You can buy it on Amazon (paperback and Kindle), or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, click here
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: “The Gentle Boy”
The Puritans had a dark side…
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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In high meadows: poems abide with 60 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | Nov 5, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Joys of reading, Language
the old warm quilt…
Book review:
My Mother’s House and Sido
by Colette (Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette) (1873-1954)
French writer, nominated for Nobel Prize in 1948
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1953
219 pages
Colette’s life was an abundance of verve. She pushed through every door.
She infused her characters and her stories with verve. Colette’s characters are alive.
This is old-fashioned fiction, the kind that invites the reader to snuggle a bit deeper under the old warm quilt and keep reading…
It’s a pleasure to read My Mother’s House and Sido.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
84, Charing Cross Road (book review)
Helene Hanff, on reading good books…
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many waters: more poems with 53 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Nov 1, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry
The Book of Days
The dawn’s early light can be pleasure enough for the whole day.
There are words enough to tell the story of “the temptation of day to come.”
It is my delight to write some of them for your delectation.
Laze…
Dense air obscures the fen for moments more,
a wan style of blue above
is the mute herald of the day,
and now a fuller mist embraces all
and hides the green that waits for light.
The slumbering wetland will not wake, it seems,
will not cease reposing
nor heed the slow alarm of dawn.
September 5, 2018
My poem “Laze…” was published in my third collection of 64 poems, In other words: Poems for your eyes and ears.
You can buy it on Amazon (paperback and Kindle),
or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, search for “Richard Carl Subber”
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Lafayette by Harlow Unger
He was a great man. Also rich and lucky.
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In high meadows: poems abide with 60 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | Oct 27, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
easy to forget…
…now you don’t
It’s easy to think the word,
easy to think it’s a good idea,
so easy to not think
it’s over there, too far,
easy to forget
it wasn’t any closer yesterday,
easy to be less than “perfect,”
yet, easy to think you see it
in the mirror,
it’s easy to think you see it now…
August 30. 2026
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review:
Great Tales of Terror
and the Supernatural
something horrifying for everyone…
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Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | Oct 24, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Language, Poetry, Reviews of other poets
turmoil in the reading
Book review:
The Homeplace
by Marilyn Nelson Waniek (b1946)
Prize-winning American poet
Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1990
Thinking about writing this review of The Homeplace re-boots the cold explosion in my self.
Honestly, there was turmoil in this reading.
Marilyn Nelson Waniek is a respected black poet. I’m an old white guy who writes and cares about poetry.
I don’t read much poetry by other writers that appeals to me. This doesn’t make me special. I think it’s an ordinary experience.
When I say that much of Marilyn Nelson’s work doesn’t appeal to me, that doesn’t signify much of anything out of the ordinary.
When I say that some of the poems wrap their hands around my throat and squeeze directly through to my soul, it signifies exactly what those words mean.
It’s not “black poetry,” let’s get that straight. That term necessarily implies that there is “white poetry.” I think there are ways to characterize poetry, but the demeaning simplicity of “black poetry” or “white poetry” isn’t acceptable. I think it’s not possible. Poetry is personal, and it doesn’t have a skin color.
Here’s an excerpt from The Homeplace:
These are words from “Chosen,” an understated account of a white Southern master and Diverne, a young black woman who is his slave, and Pomp, their son.
“Diverne wanted to die, that August night
his face hung over hers, a sweating moon.
She wished so hard, she killed part of her heart
…And the man who came
out of a twelve-room house and ran to her
close shack across three yards that night, to leap
onto her cornshuck pallet. Pomp was their
share of the future. And it wasn’t rape.
In spite of her raw terror. And his whip.”
I’d like to say I think I want to walk a mile in Marilyn Nelson’s shoes.
Maybe I was able to trudge a few steps when I read her poems.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Financier
Theodore Dreiser’s villain…
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In high meadows: poems abide with 60 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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