I just finished reading The Blue Wound, a 1921 novel by Garet Garrett and boy what an enjoyable read. I found a 2008 paperback reprint, 109 pages, at Barnes and Noble. Now I want to get copies of his other writings.
The story is about a writer who goes on a journey to find the man who started World War 1. He meets a man named Mered who takes him around the world of the past and present with a glimpse of the future of 1950 showing how civilizations keep destroying themselves and giving his reasons why. It’s scary how many ideas that were popular then are again so now.
I won’t mention any spoilers here and I recommend this site for a good in-depth review of the book.
Mered’s thought processes are sometimes loaded with juicy mental somersaults as in this paragraph where he explains to the writer about a union meeting of miners deciding whether to go on strike for more money and benefits:
“Again,” said Mered, “listen rather to what they mean than what they say. The question here is whether the state has still the strength to say on what terms half a million shall continue to perform the drudgery of digging coal. Their dilemma is that the coal diggers are politically free. Therefore they cannot be chained to their work. But on no account can they be allowed to stop; nor can they be permitted to name their own terms. Thus you approach involuntary servitude under conditions of political freedom.”
Wow! Sounds like political science professors of today instead of 1921.
I recommend this book.
I’ve read several of Garrett’s books, all of them excellent. He was an outstanding critic of the New Deal, writing for The Saturday Evening Post. He is definitely a wrtier worth reading.
I can recommend his book, The Driver,whose hero is a wall street speculator ….gasp
There are those that say that Ayn Rand borrowed from ‘The Driver’. The lead character in ‘The Driver’ is named Henry Gault which furthers such speculation. There are also those that say that she copied Yevgeny Zamyatin’s 1920 novel We when she wrote Anthem. Does anyone know the history behind this?
Google Books has full scans available of The Driver and The Blue Wound.
I know the claim concerning The Driver began with (I think) Justin Raimondo in an article in Chronicles years ago. I think he elaborated on it in his book Reclaiming the Right.
Also, I just discovered that the Mises Institute has The Driver in audiobook form.
Thanks for the link. In my Garet Garrett blog, I discuss The Driver and its relation to Ayn Rand as well as similarities between Rand’s writing and other novels of that era. The Driver also provides great background on the Panic of 1893 and lessons for the current crisis.
Thanks all of you. I will check out those links.