''The Last Hunt'' is a 1954

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

novel by

Milton Lott Milton Lott (1916 – 1996) was an author of western novels. He grew up in the Snake River Valley, in Idaho and attended University of California, Berkeley. While there he started writing his first published novel, ''The Last Hunt''. He work ...

, written while he was in one of

George R. Stewart George Rippey Stewart (May 31, 1895 – August 22, 1980) was an American historian, toponymist, novelist, and a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. His 1959 book, ''Pickett's Charge'', a detailed history of the final ...

's classes. Lott worked on the novel while in school, and received a fellowship from Houghton Mifflin to finish the book. The book was later made into a film of the same name. It was published in German by the Deutsche Hausbücherei in 1956 as ''Die letzte Jagd''. The story is set in the 19th century, and deals with the lives of two men whose cattle herd is wiped out by a storm. The men subsequently go into the buffalo-hunting business. The novel deals with their life in the trade, including a fight with Indians and the shooting of a white buffalo. The Pulitzer Prize jury selected ''The Last Hunt'' for the 1955 fiction prize, but

John Hohenberg John Hohenberg (February 17, 1906 – August 6, 2000) was an American journalist and academic. During his journalism career from the 1920s to 1950s, Hohenberg primarily worked at the ''New York Evening Post'' and '' New York Journal-American''. Aft ...

convinced the Pulitzer board that

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...

was long overdue for the award, despite ''

A Fable ''A Fable'' is a 1954 novel written by the American author William Faulkner. He spent more than a decade and tremendous effort on it, and aspired for it to be "the best work of my life and maybe of my time". It won the Pulitzer Prize and the Nat ...

'' being a lesser work of his, and the board overrode the jury's selection, much to the disgust of its members.Hohenberg, John. ''John Hohenberg: The Pursuit of Excellence'', University Press of Florida, Gainesville, 1995, pp. 162-163

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Hunt (Western Novel) Western (genre) novels American novels adapted into films Midwestern United States in fiction 1954 American novels Houghton Mifflin books