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Northwest Passage (novel)
Encyclopedia
Northwest Passage is a historical novel
by Kenneth Roberts, published in 1937. Told through the eyes of primary character Langdon Towne, much of this novel centers around the exploits and character of Robert Rogers
, the leader of Rogers' Rangers
, who were a colonial force fighting with the British during the French and Indian War
.
Structurally, Northwest Passage is divided into halves. The first half is a carefully researched, day-by-day recreation of the raid by Rogers' Rangers on the Indian village at Saint-François-du-Lac, Quebec
(or Saint Francis, to the Americans troops). The second half of the novel covers Rogers' later life in London, England and Fort Michilimackinac
, Michigan. Roberts' decision to cover the novel's material in two distinct halves followed the actual trajectory of Rogers' life.
The book later served as the basis for a 1940 movie starring Spencer Tracy
and a 1958-59 TV show
starring Buddy Ebsen
.
resident of Kittery, Maine
, in love with Elizabeth Browne, the youngest daughter of Anglican minister Rev. Arthur Browne of nearby Portsmouth, New Hampshire
]. Towne wants to become an artist, a goal which he has kept secret from even Elizabeth. He is admitted to Harvard College
, but an ill-timed visit from his friends Saved from Captivity ('Cap') Huff and Hunking ('Hunk') Marriner results in his expulsion in 1759, although it does allow him to meet the young artist John Singleton Copley
. Upon his return to Portsmouth, he incautiously insults Benning Wentworth
, the governor of the Province of New Hampshire
, and he and Hunk flee arrest and head to Crown Point
to join the volunteers fighting the French and Indian War
.
On their way, they meet a sergeant named McNott, who is a member of Rogers' Rangers
. Both Towne and Hunk decide to join Rogers' Rangers themselves. After arriving at Crown Point, Towne impresses Major Robert Rogers
with a discussion about the Northwest Passage
and is chosen as one of Rogers' aides. Setting out with a force of Rangers, Stockbridge Indians
and Mohawk Indians
, the troops are not told their destination. The Mohawks, who are closely allied with Sir William Johnson
, are jealous of Rogers' preference for the Stockbridge Indians and decide to leave. Hunk and McNott, among others, are critically injured when the Mohawks detonate gunpowder after failing to steal it. The rest of the Rangers are then informed that their destination is the Abenaki town of Saint Francis
, a center for hostile native raiding parties into New England
. In a predawn attack, the Rangers annihilate the town and kill about a quarter of the population. However, to prevent capture, the Rangers choose to return across Quebec and northern Vermont. The harrowing journey creates dissension, and some Rangers who choose to separate from the main body are massacred by pursuing French and Indian troops.
The starving troops eventually make it safely to the planned meeting point, Fort Wentworth
on the Connecticut River
, where reinforcements and supplies were supposed to be waiting for them. However, the reinforcements withdrew with the food shortly before their arrival, apparently afraid that Rogers' men were enemy troops. A group of four men, including Rogers and Towne, make the arduous raft trip down the Connecticut to the Fort at Number 4
to get food for the rest of the company. They barely make it, but they succeed in saving the company. As a result, Towne is promoted to ensign
, and he returns to Portsmouth a hero, just in time for Hunk's death from his wounds. Towne now openly works at painting, and Copley helps get him a small commission and points him toward a trip to England to study art. Towne, however, wants to stay in Portsmouth, paint natives and the West, and marry Elizabeth. When Rogers comes to town in the summer of 1761, he greets Towne as a long-lost friend ... and asks Towne to be his best man, as he has proposed to Elizabeth, whom he met through fellow Mason
Rev. Browne, and she has accepted. Instead, a crushed Towne decides to go to England.
, who arranges for him to get a commission for a panel of Jeffrey Amherst at Vauxhall Gardens
that brings him other work, more than enough to prevent him from having to return home broke. In early 1765, Towne, now 26, finds out that Rogers (minus Elizabeth) has arrived in London. With Rogers' help, Towne gets a major commission from a wealthy nobleman to paint a series of pictures of the Saint Francis raid. Rogers has decided to mount an expedition to find the Northwest Passage and has come to England both to collect his back pay and to win appointment as the royal governor of Fort Michilimackinac
, the farthest west of the British forts on the Great Lakes
, and he offers to include Towne in the expedition.
Rogers has a personal secretary named Natty Potter, who helps him write two books and a play while in London. Potter recruits Towne to find his daughter Ann. Towne finds that Ann, now about 14, was left nine years ago with a family that trained children to act as crippled beggars, and he ends up paying £15 to take her away from there. To his surprise, Towne learns that Potter only wanted to blackmail Ann's mother, a member of a wealthy family with whom he'd had a Fleet Marriage
, and is unwilling to provide for Ann (or even to reimburse Towne) after the blackmail is paid, so Ann ends up as Towne's responsibility. Ann proves to be a gifted mimic and quickly picks up "proper" behavior from the tutor Towne hires for her.
With the help of Charles Townshend
, Rogers is appointed governor of Michilimackinac over the objections of General Thomas Gage
and Sir William Johnson
, who had monopolized trade with the natives. When Towne finishes his series of paintings, he and Ann return with Rogers and Potter to Portsmouth in 1766. Rogers has arranged for several of his former Rangers to join the journey, including McNott (who lost a leg from the gunpowder explosion), Jonathan Carver
, and James Tute; Elizabeth, Potter and Ann also accompany the group to Michilimackinac. Rogers expects to receive orders that permit him to appoint a deputy governor so that he can lead the search for the Northwest Passage himself, but such orders are not included with the authorization for the expedition, so the group leaves without Rogers (or Elizabeth, Potter and Ann), with Tute and a trader named Stanley Goddard in command.
Because Towne has paid his own way to join the expedition, he is not under Tute's command, and he and McNott winter separately among the Yankton Dakota
. In the spring, when they reunite with Tute, Goddard and Carver, they find that the rest of the group is out of supplies. Towne and McNott then learn that the other three have used their supplies to purchase a large parcel of land from the Dakota (which the Yankton Dakota inform McNott that the Dakota do not actually own, because it is contested by the Chippewa
) and have abandoned their mission. McNott and Towne travel up the Missouri River on the route to the Northwest Passage without them, but a serious injury to McNott forces them to head back to Michilimackinac. When they arrive, in the spring of 1768, they learn that Charles Townshend has died, that Rogers has been arrested by Gage and Johnson for exceeding his authority, and that Ann has returned to England after Rogers tried to take improper liberties with her.
When the ice on the Great Lakes breaks, Towne, who realizes that he has fallen in love with Ann, returns to England himself, where he finds and marries Ann, who has just opened a one-woman play about life on the frontier. She has taken some of his sketches to a royal society that commissions him to paint a series of pictures based on native mythology. Rogers later returns to England after being acquitted at court-martial but is ill from his imprisonment and is soon placed in debtors' prison. At the end, Towne and Ann decide to return to America and side with the American Revolution, although they know Rogers has sided with the British.
before his retirement as editor of the Post, with Book 1 running in 1936 and Book 2 in 1937. The story became a national sensation and was the second best-selling novel in the U.S. in 1937, behind only Gone with the Wind
, and was also the fifth best-selling novel in 1938.
Roberts wrote the novel in close collaboration with his neighbor Booth Tarkington
, and dedicated the novel to him. In his autobiography, Roberts says that Tarkington did significantly more editing and rewriting of this book than he had ever done on any of Roberts' prior books, even Rabble in Arms, which had been Roberts' first real success. As a result, Roberts became discouraged during the writing process. When he worked up the courage to ask Tarkington whether his writing had become so much worse that the book needed so much more substantial editing, Tarkington told him that the opposite was true—the book was so much better than its predecessors that Tarkington thought it could become a smash hit with such editing. Roberts offered Tarkington co-author credit, but Tarkington refused it.
Roberts was hampered in writing Book 2 by the absence of two court-martial transcripts: the trial of Lieutenant Stevens (who was the leader of the troops that took the food away from Fort Wentworth in Book 1) and the trial of Rogers himself, which was a key element in Book 2. The transcripts had been lost for over one hundred years, and several historians had claimed that the transcripts had been suppressed by Rogers' allies such as Amherst to cover up embarrassing details about Rogers. Roberts, however, believed that the transcripts had probably been destroyed by Rogers' enemies Gage and Johnson and that copies still might exist at the Colonial Office
in England. To that end, he hired a full-time English researcher to hunt for the transcripts.
After an extended search, when the novel was almost complete, copies of both transcripts were located, and Roberts' theory that they would be helpful, not harmful, to Rogers' reputation proved to be correct. The transcripts were published as part of a special two-volume first edition of Northwest Passage. However, Roberts fell behind in writing the book as a result of the inability to find the transcripts, and he had to finish the last part of the story (beginning with the journey from Michilimackinac) while on holiday in Italy, without the help of Tarkington. Another friend of Roberts', Major A. Hamilton Gibbs, author of the number one bestseller of 1925, Soundings, performed an editing function similar to Tarkington for the last section. Some critics of the time found the transition in prose style to be jarring.
The Saint Francis raid, depicted in the first half of the novel, inspired the 1940 movie
with the same title, starring Spencer Tracy
. The producers' decision to concentrate on the first book of the novel allowed the film to have a happy ending. Roberts, however, intensely disliked the movie, which had the Rogers character burst into tears upon a disappointment, while the historic Rogers had rallied his force to remain strong despite the disappointment, completely omitted the harrowing but pivotal journey to the Fort at Number 4 and ignored the Towne-Rogers-Elizabeth romantic triangle. Roberts resolved to refuse to sell any more of his works to Hollywood as a result.
According to MGM, the cost of making the movie in Technicolor
had proven to be prohibitive, and so MGM decided not to film the second book of the novel. Roberts, though, believed that the producers had never had any intention of filming the second book, because they never introduced the character of McNott, who played a key role, in the movie of the first book.
The book also served as the basis for a 1958-59 television series
, which was more closely based on the movie than on the book.
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
by Kenneth Roberts, published in 1937. Told through the eyes of primary character Langdon Towne, much of this novel centers around the exploits and character of Robert Rogers
Robert Rogers (soldier)
Robert Rogers was an American colonial frontiersman. Rogers served in the British army during both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution...
, the leader of Rogers' Rangers
Rogers' Rangers
Rogers' Rangers was an independent company of colonial militia, attached to the British Army during the Seven Years War . The unit was informally trained by Major Robert Rogers as a rapidly deployable light infantry force tasked with reconnaissance and conducting special operations against distant...
, who were a colonial force fighting with the British during the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
.
Structurally, Northwest Passage is divided into halves. The first half is a carefully researched, day-by-day recreation of the raid by Rogers' Rangers on the Indian village at Saint-François-du-Lac, Quebec
Saint-François-du-Lac, Quebec
Saint-François-du-Lac is a community in the Nicolet-Yamaska Regional County Municipality of Quebec, Canada. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 2,002...
(or Saint Francis, to the Americans troops). The second half of the novel covers Rogers' later life in London, England and Fort Michilimackinac
Fort Michilimackinac
Fort Michilimackinac was an 18th century French, and later British, fort and trading post in the Great Lakes of North America. Built around 1715, it was located along the southern shore of the strategic Straits of Mackinac connecting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, at the northern tip of the lower...
, Michigan. Roberts' decision to cover the novel's material in two distinct halves followed the actual trajectory of Rogers' life.
The book later served as the basis for a 1940 movie starring Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...
and a 1958-59 TV show
Northwest Passage (TV series)
Northwest Passage is a 26-episode half-hour adventure television series produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayer about Major Robert Rogers during the time of the French and Indian War . The show derived its title and the main characters Rogers, Towne, and Marriner from the 1937 novel of the same name by...
starring Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie...
.
Book 1
Langdon Towne is a young CongregationalistCongregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
resident of Kittery, Maine
Kittery, Maine
Kittery is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 9,543 at the 2000 census. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and part of the Isles of Shoals...
, in love with Elizabeth Browne, the youngest daughter of Anglican minister Rev. Arthur Browne of nearby Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire in the United States. It is the largest city but only the fourth-largest community in the county, with a population of 21,233 at the 2010 census...
]. Towne wants to become an artist, a goal which he has kept secret from even Elizabeth. He is admitted to Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
, but an ill-timed visit from his friends Saved from Captivity ('Cap') Huff and Hunking ('Hunk') Marriner results in his expulsion in 1759, although it does allow him to meet the young artist John Singleton Copley
John Singleton Copley
John Singleton Copley was an American painter, born presumably in Boston, Massachusetts, and a son of Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Irish. He is famous for his portrait paintings of important figures in colonial New England, depicting in particular middle-class subjects...
. Upon his return to Portsmouth, he incautiously insults Benning Wentworth
Benning Wentworth
Benning Wentworth was the colonial governor of New Hampshire from 1741 to 1766.-Biography:The eldest child of the John Wentworth who had been Lieutenant Governor, he was born and died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Wentworth graduated from Harvard College in 1715...
, the governor of the Province of New Hampshire
Province of New Hampshire
The Province of New Hampshire is a name first given in 1629 to the territory between the Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers on the eastern coast of North America. It was formally organized as an English royal colony on October 7, 1691, during the period of English colonization...
, and he and Hunk flee arrest and head to Crown Point
Crown Point
Crown Point is the name of several towns or cities, and geographic features:United States*Crown Point, Alaska*Crown Point, Indiana - Lake County*Crown Point, New York**Fort Crown Point, built in 1759 on Lake Champlain by the British...
to join the volunteers fighting the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
.
On their way, they meet a sergeant named McNott, who is a member of Rogers' Rangers
Rogers' Rangers
Rogers' Rangers was an independent company of colonial militia, attached to the British Army during the Seven Years War . The unit was informally trained by Major Robert Rogers as a rapidly deployable light infantry force tasked with reconnaissance and conducting special operations against distant...
. Both Towne and Hunk decide to join Rogers' Rangers themselves. After arriving at Crown Point, Towne impresses Major Robert Rogers
Robert Rogers
Robert Rogers may refer to:*Robert Rogers , 18th century American colonial officer, explorer and playwright*Robert Rogers , Canadian politician...
with a discussion about the Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
and is chosen as one of Rogers' aides. Setting out with a force of Rangers, Stockbridge Indians
Mahican
The Mahican are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, originally settling in the Hudson River Valley . After 1680, many moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. During the early 1820s and 1830s, most of the Mahican descendants migrated westward to northeastern Wisconsin...
and Mohawk Indians
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
, the troops are not told their destination. The Mohawks, who are closely allied with Sir William Johnson
Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet
Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet was an Anglo-Irish official of the British Empire. As a young man, Johnson came to the Province of New York to manage an estate purchased by his uncle, Admiral Peter Warren, which was located amidst the Mohawk, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League...
, are jealous of Rogers' preference for the Stockbridge Indians and decide to leave. Hunk and McNott, among others, are critically injured when the Mohawks detonate gunpowder after failing to steal it. The rest of the Rangers are then informed that their destination is the Abenaki town of Saint Francis
Saint-François-du-Lac, Quebec
Saint-François-du-Lac is a community in the Nicolet-Yamaska Regional County Municipality of Quebec, Canada. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 2,002...
, a center for hostile native raiding parties into New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. In a predawn attack, the Rangers annihilate the town and kill about a quarter of the population. However, to prevent capture, the Rangers choose to return across Quebec and northern Vermont. The harrowing journey creates dissension, and some Rangers who choose to separate from the main body are massacred by pursuing French and Indian troops.
The starving troops eventually make it safely to the planned meeting point, Fort Wentworth
Fort Wentworth
Fort Wentworth was built by order of Benning Wentworth in 1755. The fort was built at the junction of the Upper Ammonoosuc River and Connecticut River, in Northumberland, New Hampshire, by soldiers of Colonel Joseph Blanchard's New Hampshire Provincial Regiment including Robert Rogers. In 1759,...
on the Connecticut River
Connecticut River
The Connecticut River is the largest and longest river in New England, and also an American Heritage River. It flows roughly south, starting from the Fourth Connecticut Lake in New Hampshire. After flowing through the remaining Connecticut Lakes and Lake Francis, it defines the border between the...
, where reinforcements and supplies were supposed to be waiting for them. However, the reinforcements withdrew with the food shortly before their arrival, apparently afraid that Rogers' men were enemy troops. A group of four men, including Rogers and Towne, make the arduous raft trip down the Connecticut to the Fort at Number 4
Fort at Number 4
The Fort at Number 4 was the northernmost British settlement along the Connecticut River in New Hampshire until after the French and Indian War. Now known as Charlestown, it was more than from the nearest other British settlement at Fort Dummer. Construction began in 1740 by brothers Stephen,...
to get food for the rest of the company. They barely make it, but they succeed in saving the company. As a result, Towne is promoted to ensign
Ensign (rank)
Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank itself acquired the name....
, and he returns to Portsmouth a hero, just in time for Hunk's death from his wounds. Towne now openly works at painting, and Copley helps get him a small commission and points him toward a trip to England to study art. Towne, however, wants to stay in Portsmouth, paint natives and the West, and marry Elizabeth. When Rogers comes to town in the summer of 1761, he greets Towne as a long-lost friend ... and asks Towne to be his best man, as he has proposed to Elizabeth, whom he met through fellow Mason
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
Rev. Browne, and she has accepted. Instead, a crushed Towne decides to go to England.
Book 2
In London, Towne learns that no one can achieve success except through "preferment", usually through a sponsor. His search for sponsorship leads him to Benjamin FranklinBenjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
, who arranges for him to get a commission for a panel of Jeffrey Amherst at Vauxhall Gardens
Vauxhall Gardens
Vauxhall Gardens was a pleasure garden, one of the leading venues for public entertainment in London, England from the mid 17th century to the mid 19th century. Originally known as New Spring Gardens, the site was believed to have opened before the Restoration of 1660 with the first mention being...
that brings him other work, more than enough to prevent him from having to return home broke. In early 1765, Towne, now 26, finds out that Rogers (minus Elizabeth) has arrived in London. With Rogers' help, Towne gets a major commission from a wealthy nobleman to paint a series of pictures of the Saint Francis raid. Rogers has decided to mount an expedition to find the Northwest Passage and has come to England both to collect his back pay and to win appointment as the royal governor of Fort Michilimackinac
Fort Michilimackinac
Fort Michilimackinac was an 18th century French, and later British, fort and trading post in the Great Lakes of North America. Built around 1715, it was located along the southern shore of the strategic Straits of Mackinac connecting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, at the northern tip of the lower...
, the farthest west of the British forts on the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
, and he offers to include Towne in the expedition.
Rogers has a personal secretary named Natty Potter, who helps him write two books and a play while in London. Potter recruits Towne to find his daughter Ann. Towne finds that Ann, now about 14, was left nine years ago with a family that trained children to act as crippled beggars, and he ends up paying £15 to take her away from there. To his surprise, Towne learns that Potter only wanted to blackmail Ann's mother, a member of a wealthy family with whom he'd had a Fleet Marriage
Fleet Marriage
A Fleet Marriage is the best-known example of an irregular or a clandestine marriage taking place in England before the Marriage Act 1753 came into force on March 25, 1754...
, and is unwilling to provide for Ann (or even to reimburse Towne) after the blackmail is paid, so Ann ends up as Towne's responsibility. Ann proves to be a gifted mimic and quickly picks up "proper" behavior from the tutor Towne hires for her.
With the help of Charles Townshend
Charles Townshend
Charles Townshend was a British politician. He was born at his family's seat of Raynham Hall in Norfolk, England, the second son of Charles Townshend, 3rd Viscount Townshend, and Audrey , daughter and heiress of Edward Harrison of Ball's Park, near Hertford, a lady who rivalled her son in...
, Rogers is appointed governor of Michilimackinac over the objections of General Thomas Gage
Thomas Gage
Thomas Gage was a British general, best known for his many years of service in North America, including his role as military commander in the early days of the American War of Independence....
and Sir William Johnson
Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet
Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet was an Anglo-Irish official of the British Empire. As a young man, Johnson came to the Province of New York to manage an estate purchased by his uncle, Admiral Peter Warren, which was located amidst the Mohawk, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League...
, who had monopolized trade with the natives. When Towne finishes his series of paintings, he and Ann return with Rogers and Potter to Portsmouth in 1766. Rogers has arranged for several of his former Rangers to join the journey, including McNott (who lost a leg from the gunpowder explosion), Jonathan Carver
Jonathan Carver
Jonathan Carver was an American explorer and writer. He was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts and then moved with his family to Canterbury, Connecticut. He later married Abigail Robbins and became a shoemaker. He is believed to have had seven children.In 1755 Carver joined the colonial militia at...
, and James Tute; Elizabeth, Potter and Ann also accompany the group to Michilimackinac. Rogers expects to receive orders that permit him to appoint a deputy governor so that he can lead the search for the Northwest Passage himself, but such orders are not included with the authorization for the expedition, so the group leaves without Rogers (or Elizabeth, Potter and Ann), with Tute and a trader named Stanley Goddard in command.
Because Towne has paid his own way to join the expedition, he is not under Tute's command, and he and McNott winter separately among the Yankton Dakota
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
. In the spring, when they reunite with Tute, Goddard and Carver, they find that the rest of the group is out of supplies. Towne and McNott then learn that the other three have used their supplies to purchase a large parcel of land from the Dakota (which the Yankton Dakota inform McNott that the Dakota do not actually own, because it is contested by the Chippewa
Ojibwa
The Ojibwe or Chippewa are among the largest groups of Native Americans–First Nations north of Mexico. They are divided between Canada and the United States. In Canada, they are the third-largest population among First Nations, surpassed only by Cree and Inuit...
) and have abandoned their mission. McNott and Towne travel up the Missouri River on the route to the Northwest Passage without them, but a serious injury to McNott forces them to head back to Michilimackinac. When they arrive, in the spring of 1768, they learn that Charles Townshend has died, that Rogers has been arrested by Gage and Johnson for exceeding his authority, and that Ann has returned to England after Rogers tried to take improper liberties with her.
When the ice on the Great Lakes breaks, Towne, who realizes that he has fallen in love with Ann, returns to England himself, where he finds and marries Ann, who has just opened a one-woman play about life on the frontier. She has taken some of his sketches to a royal society that commissions him to paint a series of pictures based on native mythology. Rogers later returns to England after being acquitted at court-martial but is ill from his imprisonment and is soon placed in debtors' prison. At the end, Towne and Ann decide to return to America and side with the American Revolution, although they know Rogers has sided with the British.
Impact
Northwest Passage was first published in serial form in the Saturday Evening Post, in one of the last decisions made by George Horace LorimerGeorge Horace Lorimer
George Horace Lorimer was an American journalist and author. He is best known as the editor of The Saturday Evening Post....
before his retirement as editor of the Post, with Book 1 running in 1936 and Book 2 in 1937. The story became a national sensation and was the second best-selling novel in the U.S. in 1937, behind only Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind
The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
, and was also the fifth best-selling novel in 1938.
Roberts wrote the novel in close collaboration with his neighbor Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams...
, and dedicated the novel to him. In his autobiography, Roberts says that Tarkington did significantly more editing and rewriting of this book than he had ever done on any of Roberts' prior books, even Rabble in Arms, which had been Roberts' first real success. As a result, Roberts became discouraged during the writing process. When he worked up the courage to ask Tarkington whether his writing had become so much worse that the book needed so much more substantial editing, Tarkington told him that the opposite was true—the book was so much better than its predecessors that Tarkington thought it could become a smash hit with such editing. Roberts offered Tarkington co-author credit, but Tarkington refused it.
Roberts was hampered in writing Book 2 by the absence of two court-martial transcripts: the trial of Lieutenant Stevens (who was the leader of the troops that took the food away from Fort Wentworth in Book 1) and the trial of Rogers himself, which was a key element in Book 2. The transcripts had been lost for over one hundred years, and several historians had claimed that the transcripts had been suppressed by Rogers' allies such as Amherst to cover up embarrassing details about Rogers. Roberts, however, believed that the transcripts had probably been destroyed by Rogers' enemies Gage and Johnson and that copies still might exist at the Colonial Office
Colonial Office
Colonial Office is the government agency which serves to oversee and supervise their colony* Colonial Office - The British Government department* Office of Insular Affairs - the American government agency* Reichskolonialamt - the German Colonial Office...
in England. To that end, he hired a full-time English researcher to hunt for the transcripts.
After an extended search, when the novel was almost complete, copies of both transcripts were located, and Roberts' theory that they would be helpful, not harmful, to Rogers' reputation proved to be correct. The transcripts were published as part of a special two-volume first edition of Northwest Passage. However, Roberts fell behind in writing the book as a result of the inability to find the transcripts, and he had to finish the last part of the story (beginning with the journey from Michilimackinac) while on holiday in Italy, without the help of Tarkington. Another friend of Roberts', Major A. Hamilton Gibbs, author of the number one bestseller of 1925, Soundings, performed an editing function similar to Tarkington for the last section. Some critics of the time found the transition in prose style to be jarring.
Filmed versions
Because of the success of the novel, a bidding war arose over the movie rights. MGM purchased the rights for an undisclosed "record sum."The Saint Francis raid, depicted in the first half of the novel, inspired the 1940 movie
Northwest Passage (1940 film)
Northwest Passage is a 1940 film in Technicolor, starring Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Brennan, Ruth Hussey, and others. It is based on a novel by Kenneth Roberts titled Northwest Passage ....
with the same title, starring Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...
. The producers' decision to concentrate on the first book of the novel allowed the film to have a happy ending. Roberts, however, intensely disliked the movie, which had the Rogers character burst into tears upon a disappointment, while the historic Rogers had rallied his force to remain strong despite the disappointment, completely omitted the harrowing but pivotal journey to the Fort at Number 4 and ignored the Towne-Rogers-Elizabeth romantic triangle. Roberts resolved to refuse to sell any more of his works to Hollywood as a result.
According to MGM, the cost of making the movie in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
had proven to be prohibitive, and so MGM decided not to film the second book of the novel. Roberts, though, believed that the producers had never had any intention of filming the second book, because they never introduced the character of McNott, who played a key role, in the movie of the first book.
The book also served as the basis for a 1958-59 television series
Northwest Passage (TV series)
Northwest Passage is a 26-episode half-hour adventure television series produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayer about Major Robert Rogers during the time of the French and Indian War . The show derived its title and the main characters Rogers, Towne, and Marriner from the 1937 novel of the same name by...
, which was more closely based on the movie than on the book.