The Misadventures of Silk and Shakespeare (American Dreamers)

Historical characters, close calls, and good-natured fun abound in this light-hearted romp through the West with adventures worthy of Don Quixote. “Win Blevins is the best writer in America.” --John Milius, screenwriter of ‘Apocalypse Now’ Here are two of the most improbable mountain men ever to trap and explore the Rocky Mountains. Shakespeare is a former actor, an older man of gargantuan proportion. His sidekick, Silk, is a rail-thin teenager with all the brains that Shakespeare lacks. They get into flabbergasting scrapes from wrestling bears, to falling in love with off-limits women in Santa Fe, a Crow woman warrior, and the porcelain-faced daughter of a trader. Silk and Shakespeare are fictional, but historical characters abound in this light-hearted romp through the west. Chief among these is Antelope Jim Beckwourth, the mulatto son of a Virginia plantation owner who became a warrior chief of the Crow Indians. Beckwourth's lover, Pine Leaf, was a legendary and very real woman-warrior of the Crows. This unlikely foursome gets into jams with dreaded enemies of the Crow and the Blackfeet. That's to be expected of characters who, like Don Quixote, dream of "enchantments, quarrels, battles, challenges, wounds, wooings, loves, tempests, and other impossible follies." Reviews "Blevins 'Silk and Shakespeare' brims with good-natured fun!" -- Publisher's Weekly “Win Blevins displays an antic imagination, not only in mingling actual and invented characters, but in melding gritty action-adventure with metaphysical musings.” — Dale Wasserman, author of Man of La Mancha “Win Blevins is the best writer in America.” --John Milius, screenwriter of ‘Apocalypse Now’ “I haven’t had so much fun reading a book about the West in years.” —George Roy Hill, director of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid