Dances with Wolves (novel)

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Dances with Wolves
Dances with Wolves (novel).jpg
AuthorMichael Blake
LanguageEnglish
GenreHistorical fiction
Publication date
1988
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint
Pages304

Dances with Wolves is a 1988 American Civil War novel by Michael Blake. Originally written as an unsold spec script, it was converted into a novel at the behest of Kevin Costner; [1] it was adapted into a film of the same name, directed by Costner, in 1990. [2] Set during the Civil War, the protagonist, Lieutenant John Dunbar, is sent to establish an outpost in the unsettled West but finds himself stranded when his wagoner is killed. Isolated and increasingly haunted by his memories of war, Dunbar abandons his post and settles with a tribe of Lakota Sioux people he has befriended, soon taking the name Dances with Wolves. The novel and the film later came under criticism for similarity to Elliot Silverstein's A Man Called Horse . [3]

On September 4, 2001, Michael Blake published The Holy Road, a sequel to Dances with Wolves; the story is set eleven years later, and deals with the increasing conflict between the Plains Indians and the white man, with tragic outcomes. [4] [5]

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References

  1. "Dances with Wolves". South Dakota Midwest Movies. Archived from the original on February 15, 2006. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  2. Andreychuk, Ed (1997). The Golden Corral: A Roundup of Magnificent Western Films. McFarland. p. 154. ISBN   9780786403936.
  3. Herzberg, Bob (2008). Savages and Saints: The Changing Image of American Indians in Westerns. McFarland. p. 279. ISBN   9780786451821.
  4. "THE HOLY ROAD". Publishers Weekly. July 16, 2001. Retrieved November 8, 2022. Eleven years after winning an Academy Award for the film screenplay of his novel Dances with Wolves, Blake offers this dramatic sequel to his tale of army Lt. John Dunbar and his life with the Comanche Indians on the Great Plains. It is now 1874, 11 years after Dunbar deserted from the army to live among the Comanche. He has married Stands with a Fist, the captive white woman raised by Indians, and they have three children. [...]
  5. "The Holy Road. A Novel". book-info.com. 2022. Retrieved November 8, 2022. Eleven years have passed since Lieutenant John Dunbar became the Comanche warrior Dances With Wolves and married Stands With A Fist, a white-born woman raised as a Comanche from early childhood. [...]