Soapy Smith in the upcoming movie, The Floor of Heaven.

THE FLOOR OF HEAVEN
NOW SHOWING

There was a secret about this book that I was asked by the author, Howard Blum, to keep until it was settled. Well, yesterday I received the word. I'll let Howard tell you. 

Just wanted to let you know that 20th Century Fox bought the film rights to THE FLOOR OF HEAVEN. I'm in LA this week and will be meeting with the studio executives (who are quite smart; they "get" the story) and I will mention the role you could play as a source and a technical advisor.

An excited Howard

I am excited too! Not only is there a good chance that Soapy will soon be in a major motion picture, but there is also a chance someone in the film industry will see this (depending on how well Soapy is portrayed) and say, "wow, what a character! He should have a film about HIM!"

Now we can see who was right in picking the actor who plays Soapy! Cross your fingers Soapy fans!

Here are links to other posts on this blog pertaining to this topic:

February 24, 2011
March 8, 2011

.

Howard Blum acknowledges the book, Alias Soapy Smith

(Click image to enlarge)

Last month I told you about Friends of Bad Man Soapy Smith member, Howard Blum's new book, The Floor of Heaven, that contains Soapy as a main character. I wondered what sort of acknowledgement he wrote. I wonder no more. There is a link with some excerpts from the book the the Note to the Reader contains the acknowledgement.

Soapy Smith was shot down before he could fulfill his often-made promise─or threat, concsidering the secrets he knew─to record his life story. Jeff Smith, his great-grandson, however, has taken Soapy’s letters, correspondance from other family members, diary entries, legal records as well as the albums of newspaper clipping Soapy collected, and written a smart and exhaustive biography that was published by Klondike Research, in Juneau, Alaska. 

I only wish he would have publish the name of the book, lol.

Here are links to other posts on this blog pertaining to this topic:
February 24, 2011

.

Did Soapy belong to the KKK?

(Click image to enlarge)

Now this is a piece I dreaded posting! This was included in Soapy's scrapbook, but there is no date. Who knows when he obtained this? It could be something from his childhood? Something that might have been sent to his family during Reconstruction?




ANY IDEAS? _____

1894: Colorado Governor Waite replaces fired commissioners Orr and Martin with Populist Party members, Dennis Mullins as fire commissioner and Samuel D. Barnes as police commissioner, a starting shot in the Denver City Hall War.

1898: Skagway vigilante Committee of 101 posts warning handbills for the bunco men to leave the area.

.

Forgiving the north.

(Click image to enlarge)

Here is a partial newspaper clipping from Soapy’s scrapbook, containing an interview with Robert E. Lee. This comes from an unknown newspaper with no date.

… Many of the most beautiful and pathetic incidents of the late war occurred after it was all over. At a hotel at Washington in 1868 a gentleman, whose face I could not exactly remember, though it seemed strangely familiar, introduced himself and asked permission to present me to his mother, a singularly beautiful old lady of queenly and dignified bearing, to whom he said:

“Mother, let me present to you General R. E. Lee of the late Confederate Army, whose saber thrust gave me this scar on my right cheek and who bears the mark of a wound I gave him.”

The beautiful old lady threw her arms around my neck and wept on my shoulder, and in that tender embrace and in the fervent clasp of that Federal officer’s hand and mine we buried the animosity of the war forever.



___


One of the most devoted adherents the Southern cause ever had was Colonel M. When my surrender to General Grant was inevitable a young officer delicately hinted to the Colonel that perhaps his confidence in the ultimate success of our arms, which was still as boastful as ever, was perhaps a trifle overweening. The Colonel looked at him for a moment with an expression in which contempt, anger, horror and amusement struggled for the mastery. Then with hands uplifted, hair standing on end and eyes flashing fire, he roared out at the discomfited Lieutenant in the voice of a stentor: “Dam up Niagara Falls with tissue paper, bottle up the Atlantic Ocean in a whisky flask, paste ‘to let’ on the sun and moon, catch a flash of lightning between your thumb and finger, build a worm fence around a winter supply of summer weather, harness a thunderbolt to a sulky, waft all the clouds out of the sky with a lady’s fan, saddle and ride a hurricane, fasten a dish clout to the tail of a comet, pack up all the stars in a beer keg, knock a tornado out of time with your fist, put Hades to cool in a springhouse, put the sky in your pocket, unbuckle the belly band of eternity, but never again allow yourself to fancy for a moment that the poor little North can ever whip the great Southern Confederacy!”

1894: Colorado Governor Waite fires commissioners Jackson Orr and D. J. Martin, but they refuse to vacate their positions, starting the Denver City Hall War.

1898: Peter Clancy Bean, a miner, was murdered. Powder burns were on his face and a .38 caliber slug in his left breast. Near his body was his empty pocketbook.

_____

.



James Keeley tries to break Soapy's bank.

(Click image to enlarge)

A clipping from Soapy’s scrapbook, unknown newspaper and date.

THE USUAL RESULT.
_____

James Keeley Tries to Break Jeff Smith’s Bank.

James H. Keeley struck the city direct from Salt Lake City last night. He carried a roll of greenbacks and several certified checks and with these tried to break Jeff Smith’s bank with the usual result. He applied to the police board, got his checks back, and now vows that smith is the finest gentleman in the city and Jeff doesn’t dispute it.

_____

.

Did Soapy Smith know Naoma Kelly in Denver?

(Click image to enlarge)

Here is a fun mystery letter from my files that was not included in my book.

Denver Col June 1st
Mr. Jefferson Smith

Dear Sir.

(Click image to enlarge)

I would like to see you on business of importance, not knowing where to find you I thought best to write. If it will be convenient to call next Tuesday eve I will be at home. Please answer and oblige.

Mrs. Naoma Kelly
1347 Marion St.
Denver

The meaning behind the content of the letter could be one of several possibilities. We know it is from a female resident of Denver, possibly known to Soapy, but we don't know the year.

Is Naoma a single woman? Could this be from a female admirer? Or is Naoma married? Soapy knew a number of men named Kelly. Perhaps Naoma is wishing to borrow some money to hold her family (and her too proud to ask husband) over during hard times? Is she seeking legal help from Soapy the “political and court fixer”? Is she possibly the wife of a Denver man who was swindled in one of Soapy’s many rooms, and she is wishing for the lost funds to be returned?

.

Soapy Smith and the burros of Creede.

(Click image to enlarge)

(Click images to enlarge)

Following is another interesting past correspondence that did not make it into my book, involving Soapy's supposed charity to Creede, Colorado mining burros in 1892. The 1979 letter is addressed to my father, from Ken Butler of Oklahoma.

(Click image to enlarge)

(Click image to enlarge)

(Click image to enlarge)

DO YOU THINK THE STORY IS FICTION OR TRUE?

.



Craig Medrid loves Soapy Smith?

(Click image to enlarge)

Back in November 2009 I began a lengthy correspondance with Craig Medrid over the way he handled Sarah Palin's comments regarding Soapy Smith in her book Going Rogue. I don't like any politicians per say, but Mr. Medrid has a special dislike for Republicans. Basically, it's not possible for them to be correct in his mind and so we went round and round over his comments regarding Soapy's history. Well, thankfully I didn't sour him on using Soapy's legend for comparisons. Check out the two articles below that he wrote for the Alaska Dispatch.

It’s great that Mr. Medrid continues to help us spread Soapy’s fame by using him to compare items he considers "bad." We thank him very sincerely for helping us keep people's minds on Soapy. However, I have to wonder if one day someone will ever use Soapy’s good deeds as a comparison, such as, “That Mr. Jones is a fantastic human being, giving so much to charity the way he does. Why he's something of a modern Soapy Smith!”

If only Joe Miller had been what he said he was

Upwards of 60,000 Alaskans clung to the myth of Joe Miller on election night in Alaska despite the storm of revelations that followed the Senate candidate's victory in the August GOP primary, and there is something noble about that. Yes, there were some cynics in the Miller camp, old-school, party-line Republicans who cared not a whit that Miller was something of a modern day "Soapy" Smith.

"Sarah Palin in pants'' is how one of them, who is not a Palin fan, described him. But Miller was the party's guy, the winner of the primary, the man chosen by the party faithful, and by God, the thinking among this group went, "If that's what the party faithful want, then it is the responsibility of a party member to hang in there, hold his or her nose, and cast the Miller vote." But these people were a minority.

Voting for Miller was a lot easier for most of the 70,000 Alaskans who blacked in the oval of the Yale-educated lawyer from Fairbanks by way of Kansas. They believed. They took Miller for what he claimed to be -- a sensible conservative. I refuse to use that Palin-spawned label, "commonsense conservative," here. I've spent much of a lifetime writing about people dead in the Alaska wilderness because sense isn't common.

Miller, to his credit, didn't really seem to buy that common-sense idea either. All campaign long, the first words out of his mouth were that he was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and Yale Law School. Old, established, elite, East Coast institutions, these are two of the best schools in the world. They aren't in the practice of counting on common sense to help young people get ahead in life. They are in the practice of teaching people to think. And Miller excelled at both institutions.

What the hell happened afterward became the big question of this year's election. What the hell was Miller's story in Alaska?

Alaska tends to attract two kinds of immigrants. Adventurers who want to live in or on the edge of America's Last Frontier, where life is a little edgier than anywhere else. Even metropolitan "Los Anchorage," we must remember, bills itself as the "Big Wild Life,'' and it is. Almost nowhere else in the world do you run the risk of stumbling into a grizzly bear in a city park. And that up-close-and-personal encounter with a moose, as portrayed in the old TV series "Northern Exposure,'' is more likely in Anchorage than in any city anywhere. Some Alaska immigrants come for this, or for the authentic, closer-to-the-land connection to the still truly wild Alaska that exists just beyond the road system.

And then there is that other group Alaska attracts -- con artists, schemers, ne'er-do-wells and end-of-the-roaders looking for that place at the edge of civilization where the rules are lax and the tolerance for oddballs is high.

Animal-loving, grizzly-bear petting, destined-to-die-early Timothy Treadwell was drawn to this like a moth to a light. The same for scripture-quoting fanatic, and later convicted child molester, "Papa Pilgrim." And then there was John Lindauer, the onetime chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage who tried to buy an election as governor with his wife's millions and ended up so deep in charges of election fraud the GOP actually withdrew its nomination of him; and Victor Jorge, Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race musher and trusted Anchorage television anchorman (back in the day when people in the media were actually trusted) who turned out to have concocted nearly his entire backstory, and, of course, the aforementioned "Soapy" Smith, who Anchorage author Charles Wohlforth has described as running a "scam-pire" in Skagway back in the Gold Rush days.

There is a bit of many of these people in a lot of Alaskans living here now, too. It's what helps make Alaska interesting. Some of the most entertaining people I've met in almost 35 years of Alaska journalism are those whose only connection to the truth is a half-truth.

That Joe Miller turned out to be one of them is unfortunate. That he took some Alaskans for a ride on a Soapy Smith railroad is just sad…

There is more to the article but Soapy isn't mentioned, so why bother. If you wish to read the remainder of the article click the link at the start of this article.

Not even CPR can save this TV show

Could "Alaska State Troopers,'' the reality series, possibly be as bad as some of the national reviews make it out to be?

You betcha.

What did we learn from the first episode of this National Geographic TV series?

Wrestlers bundled in cold-weather clothing, be they drunk or sober, are slower moving and seemingly less dangerous than those in shorts and T-shirts. Some of our troopers are really nice and others are as shady as Soapy Smith…

Once again I did not post the entire article, for the same reason. If you wish to read the whole writeup please click the link at the top of the article.  

Here are links to other posts on this blog pertaining to this topic:

• Nov. 27, 2009
• Nov. 29, 2009
• Nov. 30, 2009
• Nov. 30, 2009
• Dec. 1, 2009

.

Dr. Isaac Moore on Soapy Smith, 1931.

(Click image to enlarge)

I received a nice new piece of Soapy folklore from Ashley Bowman of the Arctic Brotherhood historical research blog.

-Forward-
I. H. Moore is Dr. Isaac H. Moore who came to Skagway from Pocatello, Idaho in 1897. He is one of the White Pass & Yukon Railway physicians who examined Frank Reid after the shootout on Juneau Wharf. -Information comes from Marlene McClusky of the Skagway Historical Society


Ashley writes,

Hi Jeff,

We emailed a little last summer about who would play Soapy in a movie-- my pick being Jim Richards :) [Richards owns and portrayed Soapy in the Days of ’98 Show] I'm writing you because I'm writing a book about the Arctic Brotherhood, and in my research came across an article written in the 30s by Dr. I. H. Moore for Alaska Weekly. He gives more than just a passing mention to Soapy and I was wondering if you folks had that source as part of your collection of Soapy resources. If you don't, let me know-- … Hope everything's going well!

… Here are the excerpts from Dr. Moore's article about Soapy! At the end I added some of my comments on what was interesting about it... because I kinda like to dissect things like this :)

--Ashley Bowman

Here is the article excerpts she sent us.

...The Arctic Brothers carried truth and justice wherever they went, either to established communities or the wilderness. They played a prominent part in breaking up the infamous Soapy Smith gang in Skagway 1898. No Arctic Brother was ever a member or sympathized with that gang which was recruited from mining and cow camps of the West and from city undesirables.
For many months this gang had spread a reign of fear and terror in the community and along the trail. Many a poor, innocent, tenderfoot stampeder was victimized by this ruthless crowd.



“Soapy” Smith a Bandit Gentleman

It met its downfall through the slaying of its leader by vigilante Reed… (section missing) encounter. The sacrifice made by Reed in performing this service is recognized by all as a great public service in the furtherance of law and order throughout the north. The disposal of the leader had a salutary effect on the undesirables-- many were “blue-ticketed” out of the country and others went voluntarily to a safer and more genial clime.

Not wanting to be considered an admirer or champion of Soapy Smith, I feel that, in keeping with the Arctic Brotherhood teaching, “look for the good in everyone,” I can say for him a few kindly words.

I knew him well and really had learned to appreciate some outstanding qualities of heart and mind. He was a natural-born leader of men and enjoyed a rare loyalty from his gang. He was generous-hearted to a fault. More than once I asked a charity donation from him for some one in distress and always received a generous donation of gold. He held the friendship of many of the Skagway merchants by his “keep-the-change” system of doing business with them. This, perhaps, was a diplomatic method of banking on men’s weakness.

He came from a family of refinement and education. A brother has been, for years, one of the most prominent journalists in a large Eastern city. He was public-spirited, and it seemed, not acted, but natural. The purpose of this may have been to dull and hypnotise the minds of men to such a degree as to cause them to be indifferent so that they would not enangle him with the law.
He controlled the U. S. Commissioners’ Court at so much per day, and none of his men ever arrested and tried, u up to the time of his death, was ever convicted. Old-timers of Skagway will not forget the disappearance of John U. Smith, U. S. Commissioner, the night of Skagway’s great tragedy.



“Soapy” Died Broke

It is supposed that he took a small boat and made his way down Lynn Canal and finally to Juneau, to catch a boat for Seattle. He could not at that time be intercepted, for it was before the days of the telegraph in the Northland. The U. S. Deputy Marshal was also on the payroll, but his salary was small when compared with the commissioner’s. He was punished by court sentence at a trial held in Sitka later.

Soapy was naturally a polished gentleman. He was just an unfortunate bad-boy, led away by evil companions, and had a proper environment and influence moulded his life he would have been a useful citizen to any country.

He was supposed to have a large amount of money at his death, but to the contrary, his cash on hand was less than $100, and an old trunk full of cards and sure thing games. He was so popular with the men of Skagway that he was selected to serve as grand marshal on July 4th, just three days before his death. He assigned me a seat in the only carriage in the parade, to me a novel experience.

Just three days later, “Soapy” Smith breathed his last. I held his head as he passed into the Great Beyond. He died with his boots on. His body lies in the cemetery at Skagway, and on his grave is laid an occasional wreath, a tribute by a passing tourist who possibly appreciated the good in this colorful character.

I tell this much of unwritten history only because the Arctic Brotherhood was so active in making the country safe and clean.

As the embers on the hearth die away the visions change from that depicted in the last episode to more cheering memories of which I shall give you in a succeeding chapter.


“If one of my readers should linger,
Over my pages in the long, long night,
And on some lone line lay a calloused finger,
Saying ; It’s human, true, it hits me right,’
Then will I count this living toll well spent;
Then I will dream a while-- content, content.”

　

My thoughts.... [Ashley Bowman]

1. Interesting that Moore claims that the AB was instrumental in breaking up the Soap Gang, considering the brotherhood wasn't formed until 1899, and a good deal of the members didn't even arrive in Alaska until after Soapy was gone. He says at the end that he only includes this story as a way to illustrate the great deeds of the AB... but I think it's just a way to try and make himself seem important by claiming to know famous people in Alaska legend.

2. Interesting that he is not willing to be considered a Soapy sympathizer but ignores Frank Reid's sordid past in idolizing him as a hero. And spells Reid wrong!

3. As you are aware, Soapy and Frank being such celebrities in Skagway, lots of people claimed to have known them but didn't... the details Moore gives make it seem feasible that he actually did, considering he acknowledges Soapy's good side; but if he actually did know him, and is giving a factual account, why include the fictitious detail about Soapy being grand marshal at the 4th of July parade? Maybe he saw the days of 98 show too much... ;)

Unfortunately I don't have the official date of this particular article. It was in the sixth installment of Moore's history of the AB in Alaska Weekly magazine; the first installment was in December 1931 so this would have been likely published at some point in '32.

Hope this is a good addition to all the rest of your sources! I read your book-- it seems as though you have a LOT. keep up the good work :)

--Ashley

P.S.
I felt it worth mentioning... that in all of my research of the Arctic Brotherhood I keep hoping that at some point I'll find some link between an AB member and the soap gang... yet to be uncovered but I REALLY want it to be there!



My thoughts [Jeff Smith]

Ashley, I sincerely thank you for this wonderful new addition to the families collection of published articles pertaining to Soapy. This is the first I have seen this piece and I'm guessing others in my family will concur. It simply amazes me how much I still don’t have after 25-plus years of searching! I enjoyed and wholly agree with your comments that there is a lot of fiction in Moore’s account and possibly his memory. It suspiciously appears that much of what Moore writes was taken from the newspapers; for instance, the part about a brother being a prominent journalist back east. In actuallity, it was not a brother, but cousin, Edwin Bobo Smith.

I love the part in which Moore claims to have held Soapy’s head as he passed away.

As for being a grand marshal of the parade, Soapy was the marshal of the fourth division, yet so many remember him as the grand marshal, why? Some claim he moved his way up to the front. I have some ideas on that, which will be posted in an article on the July 4 parade along with a newly discovered photograph of Soapy…soon.

 

.

Pic of the day: Juneau wharf

______

(Click image to enlarge)

 

.

How the Tivoli Club got its name.

(Click image to enlarge)

In Alias Soapy Smith, I discuss different theories as to how Soapy came to name his first saloon, the Tivoli Club. In once again researching Denver's newspapers I found the following

William Deutsch is proprietor of the Tivoli variety theatre in Pueblo. It was reported burglarized on march 6, 1883. $100 in silver and two pistols.  -Rocky Mountain News, March 6, 1883.

Deutsch obtained the property and constructed the building that would house Soapy's saloon and gaming den on August 12, 1886. The Tivoli Club opened its doors in 1888. I think Deutsch may have suggested the name "Tivoli" to Soapy.

Tivoli name: page 124.

.

Soapy Smith robbed by the "Sanctimonious kid."



The train is still in operation for visitors to Skagway!

 (Click image to enlarge)

Here is another story that did not make the pages of my book. It comes from the 1927 book by Jack Black, YOU CAN’T WIN. Unfortunately, there is no provenance or collaboration that this incidence actually took place. none the less I hope you enjoy it.

“Sanctimonious Kid”: Rogue robber mentioned in the book, You Can’t Win, who supposedly robbed Soapy at gun-point for $1,500. Operated the dice-game concession at the Chicken Coop in Denver. Soapy had won $3,000 from the “Kid” and his partner so the “Kid” wanting his money back, robbed Soapy. After the robbery Soapy said, “I know him and told him so; and I’m going to kill him on sight.”

There are many Soapy stories I did not, could not, include in my book. Besides there being a vast number of them, far too many for a book being touted by some as too big as it is, many of them were obvious concoctions written by ordinary folk who sought a little fame and others were obvious inventions within the minds of writers in order to fill and round out their articles. Some were plausible enough but just simply had no provenance and limited space had me dropping some decent stories for inclusion. One of the latter choices I did not include was the robbery of Soapy by the “Sanctimonious Kid.”

We jumped to Denver, where Sanc got the dice-game concession in the “Chicken Coop,” a small gambling house. We had three thousand dollars between us. Two Thousand went into the bankroll and we opened up bravely. “Soapy Smith,” gambler and bunko man, noted for his high plays and big winnings and losings, won our two thousand in three successive plays. Sanc wanted to continue with the balance of our money, but I refused and stubbornly held on to my last five hundred. We had to quit.

Sanc was a hard loser and followed “Soapy” around town for a week trying to “elevate” [rob] him. He never got away from the bright lights, and Sanc gave up the notion of sticking him up. …

Then came a night when the Sanctimonious Kid failed to show up at the room. I was worried and made the rounds of the gambling houses, joints, and hangouts, but failed to find him or anybody who had seen him. My fears were put to rest later when Soapy Smith, who won our bankroll, appeared in the “Missouri House” and told with the good graces of a man who had lost fortunes how he had been “taken” by a “stick-up” man for fifteen hundred dollars.

“It was the first time in a year I had been off Larimer Street, and it serves me right,” he laughed. “Anyway, I know him and told him so; and I’m going to kill him on sight.” …

After the robbery Sanc disappeared, and it was long till I saw him again. I decided to leave Denver. I owed them fifteen days on the chain gang, and had no wish to pay by shoveling snow in the streets.

.

Soapy Smith and The Floor of Heaven

(Click image to enlarge)

There's a new book coming out in April having Soapy as one of the main characters. the book is called The Floor of Heaven: A True Tale of the American West and the Yukon Gold Rush, by author, Howard Blum.

The Floor of Heaven: A True Tale of the American West and the Yukon Gold Rush
Howard Blum, Crown, $26 (448p) ISBN 978-0-307-46172-8

Blum, author of the bestselling and Edgar-winning American Lightning, displays all his creative gifts here. Using primary source materials from the three individuals around whom the narrative revolves, he tells a fascinating story of the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush. Charlie Siringo was a larger-than-life hero, a cowboy turned successful businessman turned Pinkerton detective renowned for his sense of duty. Jefferson "Soapy" Smith epitomized the frontier "confidence man" who considered dishonesty a way of life. George Carmack, the prospector who precipitated the great Alaska gold rush that drew the men together, deserted from the Marines, married a Native American, and pursued his prospecting dreams to the Klondike. Detailing crimes perpetrated and solved, relationships both happy and tragic, hardships unthinkable in the modern age, and the cold, magical allure of Alaska and the Yukon, Blum captures the spirit and mood of the last of the Old West. The final pages, especially, are filled with drama and a strange yearning. From a purely historical perspective, there should have been more information on Alaska as a Russian colony and American territory, but as an exciting narrative, this is a huge success. 8 pages of b&w photos; 1 map. (Apr.)

Following is a recent interview in Publisher's Weekly.

The Lure of Gold: PW Talks with Howard Blum
By Amy Meng
Feb 21, 2011


Three very different men in the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush anchor Howard Blum's tale of the last frontier, The Floor of Heaven: A True Tale of the American West and the Yukon Gold Rush .

How did you first discover the story of Charlie, George, and Soapy?

I wish I could say I saw it all whole. I started out by wanting to write a western and to me the most interesting part of the West was its coming to an end—these men who were heroes in many ways had outlived their usefulness. While researching, I discovered Charlie Siringo's books. He had this wonderful voice and talked about his escapades, solving something like 97 cases in four or five books. I saw this Alaska case, and then I came across the guys who were behind the robbery and that led me to Soapy Smith, which led me to George Carmack. All the pieces fell together to weave a tale that was bigger than one man, even bigger than three men.

Is that usually how nonfiction books come together for you?

The key is to know what the people are thinking—what they said and what they felt. If you're writing a novel, you can make that up. [For nonfiction], you have to find primary sources. The way this worked was through Siringo's books and Carmack's letters, which were bought in a bookstore for $55, then donated to the University of Washington. Soapy Smith had a voluminous book written by his great-great-grandson that enabled me to write that with some authority. Once you have these first-person sources, the book comes together. You choose a point of view that will drive you through the story and can lead to a dramatic ending.

What do you find most appealing about the cultural myth of the Wild West?

The iconic values of the cowboys and the pioneers: wanting to live with adventure, wanting to do what's right, the quest for justice, the sacrifices people made. That kind of self-sacrifice and indomitable spirit I hope pervades the book and shows that these men are flawed, but also heroes.

You say that during the gold rush people were "so squeezed by the economic hardships of the times that they were willing to do or try just about anything to fill their lives with the prospect of something better." Do you think this relates to America today?

Very much so. The surprise hit of this season on cable TV is Gold Rush: Alaska. These are a bunch of guys who have no other option, so they're off to Alaska to look for gold. When hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world went to the Yukon to look for gold, the original prospectors had already claimed most of it. These people were going to a country where there was nothing to be found. There are also the scams—the Soapy Smiths, the guys selling the gold to investors today. A whole bunch of Madoff-type schemes come up in tough economic times when people are trying to maximize return on their investments. The parallels are very dramatic. Gold has an almost atavistic lure. People feel it has a panacea effect.

I am looking forward to this one gang! I will keep you posted on all the latest as it comes in.

 

.