Lincoln, Nebraska 68505
February 19, 1973
I have your letter of February 14, and I am glad to know that you have been reading some of Hugh Glass.
In answer to your question about Jamie, I can only tell you that I purposely left the question you ask to the imagination of the reader. My artistic purpose is already served by the meeting of the two. To go any farther with the story would be to weaken its effect.
You ask how much of this story of Hugh Glass is actual fact. It is true that Hugh Glass was wounded as my poem related and that he did crawl the greater part of a hundred miles after he was deserted by a trusted companion. The details of the terrain of Hugh's crawl and of his struggle to live were invented by me out of my knowledge of the country and men suffering hardships.
I am wondering if you know my CYCLE OF THE WEST. There are five Songs in the complete edition and the Song of Hugh Glass is the second in the series.
I hope that my replies to your questions will help you.
John G. Neihardt
It may interest you to know that I described the terrain of Hugh's crawl in my poem eight years before I saw the country. Don't ask me how I knew, but it certainly seems that I did know.
J. G. N.
