The Big Country (Hamilton novel)

Last updated
The Big Country
The Big Country Dell First edition B115.jpg
Paperback original
Author Donald Hamilton
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Western novel
Publisher Dell Publishing
Publication date
1958
Media typePrint (Paperback)

The Big Country is a Western novel by Donald Hamilton. It was originally serialized in The Saturday Evening Post as Ambush at Blanco Canyon. Published two years prior to Hamilton's Death of a Citizen , which launched his popular Matt Helm series, it explores many of the same themes of self-reliance that dominated the author's work.

Contents

Plot summary

Maryland sea captain James McKay goes west to Texas, to claim his bride, and steps into a violent feud over water.

Film adaptation

The novel was adapted into a film of the same name in 1958 starring Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Charles Bickford, Burl Ives and Chuck Connors. [1] [2] The film adaptation was mostly faithful to the plot of the novel, while simplifying the story and eliminating some characters. [3]

Comic book adaptation

The Big Country comics

Publication history

Related Research Articles

<i>The Big Country</i> 1958 film directed by William Wyler

The Big Country is a 1958 American epic Western film directed by William Wyler, starring Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, and Burl Ives. The supporting cast features Charles Bickford and Chuck Connors. Filmed in Technicolor and Technirama, the picture was based on the serialized magazine novel Ambush at Blanco Canyon by Donald Hamilton and was co-produced by Wyler and Peck. The opening title sequence was created by Saul Bass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregory Peck</span> American actor (1916–2003)

Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema.

<i>Mackennas Gold</i> 1969 film by J. Lee Thompson

Mackenna's Gold is a 1969 American Western film directed by J. Lee Thompson, starring an ensemble cast featuring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Telly Savalas, Ted Cassidy, Camilla Sparv and Julie Newmar in lead roles. It was photographed in Super Panavision 70 and Technicolor by Joseph MacDonald, with original music by Quincy Jones.

Donald Bengtsson Hamilton was an American writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction, but also crime fiction and westerns, such as The Big Country. He is best known for his long-running Matt Helm series (1960-1993), which chronicles the adventures of an undercover counter-agent/assassin working for a secret American government agency. The noted critic Anthony Boucher wrote: "Donald Hamilton has brought to the spy novel the authentic hard realism of Dashiell Hammett; and his stories are as compelling, and probably as close to the sordid truth of espionage, as any now being told."

<i>Pork Chop Hill</i> (film) 1959 film by Lewis Milestone

Pork Chop Hill is a 1959 American Korean War film starring Gregory Peck, Woody Strode, Rip Torn, and George Peppard. The film, which was the final war film directed by Lewis Milestone, is based upon the 1956 book by U.S. military historian Brigadier General S. L. A. Marshall. It depicts the first fierce Battle of Pork Chop Hill between the U.S. Army's 7th Infantry Division and Chinese and North Korean forces in April 1953.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dell Comics</span> American comic book publisher

Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium. In 1953 Dell claimed to be the world's largest comics publisher, selling 26 million copies each month.

<i>Moby Dick</i> (1956 film) 1956 film by John Huston

Moby Dick is a 1956 period adventure drama film directed and produced by John Huston, adapted by Huston and Ray Bradbury from Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick. It stars Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab, Richard Basehart as Ishmael, and Leo Genn as Starbuck, with supporting performances by James Robertson Justice, Harry Andrews, Friedrich von Ledebur, Bernard Miles, Noel Purcell and Orson Welles. The film was a co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States.

Luke Short was a popular Western writer. At least ten of his novels were made into films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dell Publishing</span> American publisher

Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000, two employees and one magazine title, I Confess, and soon began turning out dozens of pulp magazines, which included penny-a-word detective stories, articles about films, and romance books.

Lewis Byford Patten was a prolific author of American Western novels, born and died in Denver, Colorado. He often published under the names Lewis Ford, Lee Leighton and Joseph Wayne. He used the last two names when writing in collaboration with Wayne D. Overholser.

<i>The Bravados</i> 1958 film by Henry King

The Bravados is a 1958 American Western film directed by Henry King, starring Gregory Peck and Joan Collins. The CinemaScope film was based on a novel of the same name, written by Frank O'Rourke.

<i>On the Beach</i> (1959 film) 1959 film by Stanley Kramer

On the Beach is a 1959 American post-apocalyptic science fiction drama film from United Artists starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, and Anthony Perkins. Produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, it is based on Nevil Shute's 1957 novel On the Beach depicting the aftermath of a nuclear war. Unlike the novel, no one is assigned blame for starting the war, which attributes global annihilation to fear compounded by accident or misjudgment.

<i>The Big Country</i> (comics)

The Big Country is a comic book adaptation and movie tie-in of the western novel The Big Country by Donald Hamilton.

William Everett Cook, was a western writer who used the pen names Will Cook,James Keene,Wade Everett and Frank Peace. Called "a master western storyteller," Cook published dozens of short stories and 50 novels before his death at age 42. A number of his stories and novels were turned into Hollywood westerns, including the 1961 John Ford film Two Rode Together.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethan Peck</span> American actor (born 1986)

Ethan Gregory Peck is an American actor. He is the grandson of actor Gregory Peck and Greta Kukkonen, the elder Peck's first wife. In 2019, he played a young Spock in Star Trek: Discovery, a role he has reprised for the television series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022–present).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Marquis Warren</span> American film director

Charles Marquis Warren was an American motion picture and television writer, producer, and director who specialized in Westerns. Among his notable career achievements were his involvement in creating the television series Rawhide and his work in adapting the radio series Gunsmoke for television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western comics</span> Comic genre

Western comics is a comics genre usually depicting the American Old West frontier and typically set during the late nineteenth century. The term is generally associated with an American comic books genre published from the late 1940s through the 1950s. Western comics of the period typically featured dramatic scripts about cowboys, gunfighters, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, and Native Americans. Accompanying artwork depicted a rural America populated with such iconic images as guns, cowboy hats, vests, horses, saloons, ranches, and deserts, contemporaneous with the setting.

<i>Gun Glory</i> 1957 film by Roy Rowland

Gun Glory is a 1957 American Metrocolor Western film directed by Roy Rowland starring Stewart Granger and Rhonda Fleming.

<i>Sergeant Preston of the Yukon</i> (TV series) 1950s American television series

Sergeant Preston of the Yukon is a half-hour long American action adventure northwestern television series, broadcast in color on CBS Thursday evenings at 7:30 to 8:00 p.m. from September 29, 1955, to September 25, 1958. It was based on the radio drama Challenge of the Yukon.

References

  1. "The Big Country". Variety. 1958-01-01. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
  2. Crowther, Bosley (1958-10-02). "War and Peace on Range in 'Big Country'; Gregory Peck Stars in Wyler's Western Action-Packed Film Scores Violence". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-04-27.
  3. Lucas, Victoria. "Hollywood at Home: Big challenges filming 'The Big Country'". Green Valley News & Sahuarita Sun. Retrieved 2023-04-27.