The Ox-Bow man

by Jackson J. Benson

"Walter Van Tilburg Clark was one of the West's most important literary figures. Author of the classic novel The Ox-Bow Incident, he helped to change American literature by making the West a legitimate subject for serious fiction. As a comparatively young man, he published three novels and an acclaimed collection of short stories, then remained almost silent for the rest of his life, the victim of a paralyzing case of writer's block. Now Jackson J. Benson has produced the first full-length biography of this enigmatic, and ultimately tragic figure." "Based on widely scattered sources - personal papers and correspondence; Clark's unpublished stories and poems; and interviews with family members, friends, and others - Benson focuses on Clark's intellectual and literary life as a writer, teacher, and westerner, balancing his account of the experiences, people, and settings of Clark's life with an examination of Clark's complex psyche and the crippling perfectionism that virtually ended his