In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Twenty Thousand Mornings: An Autobiography by John Joseph Mathews
  • Mascha N. Gemein (bio)
John Joseph Mathews. Twenty Thousand Mornings: An Autobiography. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-8061-4253-1. 302pp.

In the beautiful language and style John Joseph Mathews (1894–1979) is known for, he drafted an autobiographical manuscript full of humorous [End Page 120] and contemplative anecdotes on the first twenty-five years of his life. Entitled “Boy, Horse, and Dog,” the late 1960s manuscript was intended as the first of three or four autobiographical volumes, connected by the series title “Twenty Thousand Mornings.” Mathews wrote the volume manuscript in 1965–67, did not find a publisher, and provided further editing in the 1970s. Thanks to Susan Kalter, associate professor of American literature and Native American studies at Illinois State University, we are now able to enjoy Mathews’s storytelling about his own life, thoughts, and personality.

As Osage author Charles H. Red Corn points out in his foreword, Kalter has done an excellent job in scrutinizing Mathews’s unpublished diaries and manuscripts in order to compose and annotate this post-humous autobiography with respect to the author’s own comments and edits. Kalter uses her detailed introduction to provide a historical, literary, and biographical framework for the text. Further, in “Notes on the Text,” as well as her insightful endnotes, Kalter explains in detail how she prepared the manuscript from Mathews’s materials. While the original volume title still precedes Mathews’s text, Kalter has chosen the intended series title, Twenty Thousand Mornings, for this edited publication, emphasizing Mathews’s original plan of a multivolume endeavor.

“Boy, Horse, and Dog” covers Mathews’ formative years, 1894 to 1921, and features what he terms his juvenile “knight errantry” (78). This period in the life of “Jo(hn)-Without-Purpose” (86, 205), as he humorously calls himself, largely corresponds to the lifespan of his horse Bally, whom he cared for all her life. Describing the years of roaming the blackjack hills and prairies with Bally and the bird dog Spot as the core of his early life, Mathews also relates to the naturalist theme in Talking to the Moon (1945).

According to Kalter, a possible title for a second autobiographical volume remains obscure. The disappointment of three press rejections for “Boy, Horse, and Dog,” a general discontent with contemporary publishing, and distractions by other engagements, especially with the Osage Tribal Museum, seemed to have stopped Mathews from further writing. His diary entries make clear, however, that he considered Talking to the Moon as one volume within his autobiographical series.

Mathews recognized autobiography as a tricky business between fact and fiction. Conscious about potentially faulty memory and private matters, Mathews conducted research to verify his memory and diary [End Page 121] entries and let his sisters read the manuscript. He comments on the resourcefulness of his diaries or lack thereof for specific issues at various times in the text. The destiny of these pre-1921 diaries is unknown. Further, Mathews clearly identifies what he calls “memory slides” (9), understanding his memories as limited and at times isolated windows into the past. These allusions to the diaries and the limited nature of memory provide the anecdotes with a self-reflexive subtext that enhances their persuasiveness.

Mathews illustrates life in Pawhuska and the changes in the Osage Indian Agency as a result of Oklahoma statehood in 1907. For example, when it becomes a county in the state of Oklahoma, the previous access and hunting restrictions for non-Natives are abrogated. Mathews writes about place and people, country dances, visiting relatives, cockfights, the first movie screenings, two tornado adventures, high school sports, and other school experiences. While his older sister is sent to boarding school, Mathews receives local education, allowing him to maintain much of his boy, horse, and dog freedom to which he soon adds rifle hunting and preparing skins for taxidermy. One highlight of the text certainly is Mathews’s commentary on the first cars entering Pawhuska in 1916 with the resulting display of pride by their owners, his father’s critical reaction, and the priest’s reckless driving while hurrying to save a soul.

References to...

pdf