Thirteen Moons (novel)
Encyclopedia
Thirteen Moons is an historical novel
published in October 2006 by American
author Charles Frazier
, his second book after the award-winning Cold Mountain
. Set in the mid-nineteenth century, the novel is loosely based on the life of William Holland Thomas
, a Confederate Army officer during the American Civil War
and Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
—the only white man to ever hold that position. Thirteen Moons depicts the social and political climate preceding and following the Cherokee Removal
from the ancestral homeland of the Cherokee Nation
in what is today Western North Carolina
.
and a brief epilogue
, the novel's entirety.
Will, as a twelve-year-old boy, is sold into indentured servitude, and in this capacity he travels alone to the edges
of a growing United States of America and of the Cherokee Nation
in order to manage a trading post
. On the way to the trading post he suffers many misadventures and ends up losing his horse which is his only means of transportation. In tracking down his beloved horse he happens upon the formidable Featherstone, (A renowned horse thief) who Will beats at a game of chance
which amounts to a large sum of money. Featherstone demands that Will give him a final chance to recoup all the money in a final hand against a girl that Featherstone claims to have many of. Will wins the girl but when he meets her (Claire) he instantly falls in love with her, however Featherstone has other plans and immediately strips Will of everything and send him running for his life off into the wilderness. After a few days of wandering Will stumbles upon the trading post. There, Will demonstrates, along with optimistic fatalism, an aptitude for entrepreneurship. He quickly learns to speak Cherokee, the language of many of his customers, he manages to communicate and trade with them. When he is sixteen the owner of the trading post dies and his son sells the business to Will. His financial success allows him to build a small library
there.
Over time, he befriends a Cherokee chief named Bear who adopts him as a son and he is adopted into the tribe as well. Will meets Claire for the second time at a party Bear hosts. He comes across Cranshaw, where Claire lives with Featherstone, sometime later, and returns frequently to visit Claire and borrow books from Featherstone. As the years go by, Will grows more and more attached to Claire and they consummate their affection after a long process of courtship, spending two romantic summers together. However, Will finds out that Claire was married to Featherstone when he married her sister she was thrown into the deal. Coupled with the fact that a white man can not legally marry a mixed blood in the state they never become joined in marriage.
The army comes in and displaces almost the whole of the Cherokee nation and Claire is forced to move away. Will turns to his friend Bear and to the Cherokee Nation. He takes up their cause and lobbies at the nation's capitol
, arguing for the tribe's legal land rights which is somewhat successful at keeping a small portion of the land for his tribes exclusive use. He visits her sometime later, but she is unenthused at his visit and has since had a child with Featherstone. Featherstone tells Will that he died and came back to life, and is determined to make his second death one of much more phenomenal proportions.
Devastated by the loss of his love on top of the miseries his friends have suffered along the Trail of Tears
and the traumas he himself witnessed while fighting in the American Civil War
, Will departs his only home and wanders the nation aimlessly.
Will's final encounter with Claire takes place at the Warm Springs Hotel, when both are in their fifties. Will hears talk of a Woman in Black who ostracizes herself from the other hotel residents and remains in mourning over the death of her husband past the appropriate period. He comes across her again one afternoon after facing physical threats from the collectors of someone to whom he owes money. She informs him that Featherstone's final death was hardly more dramatic than the first, and that her child has died as well. The pair spends another summer together, during which time Claire rejects a marriage proposal from Will and decides to leave him again. After long years, which include a duel with Featherstone, Will retires to a lonely home near a railroad built on a vast tract of land which he owns. The novel ends in elegy for lost opportunities, the frontier spirit, and the memory of a native people.
language and syllabary
. The Initiative, which was established with a grant from Charles Frazier, aims at preserving the Cherokee language.
of over $8 million for a proposal that became Thirteen Moons. The book had an initial print run of 750,000 copies, but sold only approximately half of them. It is estimated that Random House
lost $5.5 million on the advance..
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
published in October 2006 by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author Charles Frazier
Charles Frazier
Charles Frazier is an award-winning American historical novelist.Frazier was born in Asheville, North Carolina, and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1973. He earned an M.A. from Appalachian State University in the mid-1970s, and received his Ph.D. in English from the University...
, his second book after the award-winning Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain (novel)
Cold Mountain is a 1997 historical fiction novel by Charles Frazier. It tells the story of W. P. Inman, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army near the end of the American Civil War who walks for months to return to Ada Monroe, the love of his life; the story shares several similarities with...
. Set in the mid-nineteenth century, the novel is loosely based on the life of William Holland Thomas
William Holland Thomas
William Holland Thomas was Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and an officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War....
, a Confederate Army officer during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
and Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians , is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the United States of America, who are descended from Cherokee who remained in the Eastern United States while others moved, or were forced to relocate, to the west in the 19th century. The history of the...
—the only white man to ever hold that position. Thirteen Moons depicts the social and political climate preceding and following the Cherokee Removal
Cherokee removal
Cherokee removal, part of the Trail of Tears, refers to the forced relocation between 1836 to 1839 of the Cherokee Nation from their lands in Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina to the Indian Territory in the Western United States, which resulted in the deaths of approximately...
from the ancestral homeland of the Cherokee Nation
Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It was established in the 20th century, and includes people descended from members of the old Cherokee Nation who relocated voluntarily from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who...
in what is today Western North Carolina
Western North Carolina
Western North Carolina is the region of North Carolina which includes the Appalachian Mountains, thus it is often known geographically as the state's Mountain Region. It is sometimes included with upstate South Carolina as the "Western Carolinas", which is also counted as a single media market...
.
Plot summary
Near the end of his life, frontiersman Will Cooper reflects on his formative experiences from the unfamiliar comfort of his twentieth-century retirement lodge. A call from Claire, a woman from his past who he believed was dead, plunges him into memory, the recollection of which comprises, save for this prologuePrologue
A prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...
and a brief epilogue
Epilogue
An epilogue, epilog or afterword is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature or drama, usually used to bring closure to the work...
, the novel's entirety.
Will, as a twelve-year-old boy, is sold into indentured servitude, and in this capacity he travels alone to the edges
Frontier
A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. 'Frontier' was absorbed into English from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"--the region of a country that fronts on another country .The use of "frontier" to mean "a region at the...
of a growing United States of America and of the Cherokee Nation
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
in order to manage a trading post
Trading post
A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....
. On the way to the trading post he suffers many misadventures and ends up losing his horse which is his only means of transportation. In tracking down his beloved horse he happens upon the formidable Featherstone, (A renowned horse thief) who Will beats at a game of chance
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
which amounts to a large sum of money. Featherstone demands that Will give him a final chance to recoup all the money in a final hand against a girl that Featherstone claims to have many of. Will wins the girl but when he meets her (Claire) he instantly falls in love with her, however Featherstone has other plans and immediately strips Will of everything and send him running for his life off into the wilderness. After a few days of wandering Will stumbles upon the trading post. There, Will demonstrates, along with optimistic fatalism, an aptitude for entrepreneurship. He quickly learns to speak Cherokee, the language of many of his customers, he manages to communicate and trade with them. When he is sixteen the owner of the trading post dies and his son sells the business to Will. His financial success allows him to build a small library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
there.
Over time, he befriends a Cherokee chief named Bear who adopts him as a son and he is adopted into the tribe as well. Will meets Claire for the second time at a party Bear hosts. He comes across Cranshaw, where Claire lives with Featherstone, sometime later, and returns frequently to visit Claire and borrow books from Featherstone. As the years go by, Will grows more and more attached to Claire and they consummate their affection after a long process of courtship, spending two romantic summers together. However, Will finds out that Claire was married to Featherstone when he married her sister she was thrown into the deal. Coupled with the fact that a white man can not legally marry a mixed blood in the state they never become joined in marriage.
The army comes in and displaces almost the whole of the Cherokee nation and Claire is forced to move away. Will turns to his friend Bear and to the Cherokee Nation. He takes up their cause and lobbies at the nation's capitol
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, arguing for the tribe's legal land rights which is somewhat successful at keeping a small portion of the land for his tribes exclusive use. He visits her sometime later, but she is unenthused at his visit and has since had a child with Featherstone. Featherstone tells Will that he died and came back to life, and is determined to make his second death one of much more phenomenal proportions.
Devastated by the loss of his love on top of the miseries his friends have suffered along the Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
The Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation and movement of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830...
and the traumas he himself witnessed while fighting in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Will departs his only home and wanders the nation aimlessly.
Will's final encounter with Claire takes place at the Warm Springs Hotel, when both are in their fifties. Will hears talk of a Woman in Black who ostracizes herself from the other hotel residents and remains in mourning over the death of her husband past the appropriate period. He comes across her again one afternoon after facing physical threats from the collectors of someone to whom he owes money. She informs him that Featherstone's final death was hardly more dramatic than the first, and that her child has died as well. The pair spends another summer together, during which time Claire rejects a marriage proposal from Will and decides to leave him again. After long years, which include a duel with Featherstone, Will retires to a lonely home near a railroad built on a vast tract of land which he owns. The novel ends in elegy for lost opportunities, the frontier spirit, and the memory of a native people.
Cherokee Literature Initiative
Thirteen Moons was selected by the Cherokee Literature Initiative of the Museum of the Cherokee Indians as the first literary work to be translated into the CherokeeCherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
language and syllabary
Cherokee syllabary
The Cherokee syllabary is a syllabary invented by Sequoyah to write the Cherokee language in the late 1810s and early 1820s. His creation of the syllabary is particularly noteworthy in that he could not previously read any script. He first experimented with logograms, but his system later developed...
. The Initiative, which was established with a grant from Charles Frazier, aims at preserving the Cherokee language.
Contract
Charles Frazier was given an advance paymentAdvance payment
An advance payment, or simply an advance, is the part of a contractually due sum that is paid in advance for goods or services, while the balance included in the invoice will only follow the delivery. It is called a prepaid expense in accrual accounting.-See also:*Advance against royalties*Pay or...
of over $8 million for a proposal that became Thirteen Moons. The book had an initial print run of 750,000 copies, but sold only approximately half of them. It is estimated that Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
lost $5.5 million on the advance..