The seventy-fifth anniversary of the publication of Drums along the Mohawk reminds us not only that Edmonds’s masterpiece is the best historical novel about Upstate New York since James Fenimore Cooper but also that it was number one on the best-seller list until overtaken by Gone With the Wind.
This is the story of the forgotten pioneers of the Mohawk Valley during the Revolutionary War. Here Gilbert Martin and his young wife struggled and lived and hoped. Combating hardships almost too great to endure, they helped give to America a legend that still stirs the heart. In the midst of love and hate, life and death, danger and disaster, they stuck to the acres that were theirs and fought a war without ever quite understanding it. Drums along the Mohawk has been an American classic since its original publication in 1936. This Syracuse University Press edition reproduces the book in its entirety.
"The best work of its kind. Throbs with life upon a hostile frontier ... doubly thrilling as Mr. Edmonds sets it down, touched with local color, lively with dialogue, bright with suspense". -- The New York Times
A young couple fights off Indian attacks to start a farm in the Mohawk Valley.
Release Date: November 3, 1939
Release Time: 103 minutes
Cast:
Henry Fonda as Gilbert "Gil" Martin
Claudette Colbert as Magdelana "Lana" Martin
Edna May Oliver as Mrs. McKlennar
John Carradine as Caldwell
Ward Bond as Adam Helmer
Roger Imhof as Gen. Nicholas Herkimer
Arthur Shields as Rev. Rosenkrantz
Chief John Big Tree as Blue Back
Francis Ford as Joe Boleo
Jessie Ralph as Mrs. Weaver
Robert Lowery as John Weaver
Kay Linaker as Mrs. Demooth
Russell Simpson as Dr. Petry
Spencer Charters as Innkeeper
Awards:
Academy Awards 1940
Best Supporting Actress -- Edna May Oliver -- Nominated
Best Cinematography, Color -- Ray Rennahan and Bert Glennon -- Nominated
Walter D. Edmonds has been a National Book Award winner and recipient of the Newbery Medal. He is the author of Bert Breen’s Barn, The Boyds of Black River, In the Hands of the Senecas, Mostly Canallers, Rome Haul, Time to Go House, and most recently the autobiographical Tales My Father Never Told, all available from Syracuse University Press.
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