Uncle Abner - Hardcover

POST, Melville Davisson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0854681310 ISBN 13: 9780854681310

Publisher: Tom Stacey, 1972

Synopsis

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1918. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III: The 'Angel of the Lord I ALWAYS thought my father took a long chance, but somebody had to take it and certainly I was the one least likely to be suspected. It was a wild country. There were no banks. We had to pay for the cattle, and somebody had to carry the money. My father and my uncle were always being watched. My father was right, I think. "Abner," he said, "I'm going to send Martin. No one will ever suppose that we would trust this money to a child." My uncle drummed on the table and rapped his heels on the floor. He was a bachelor, stern and silent. But he could talk . . . and when he did, he began at the beginning and you heard him through; and what he said--well, he stood behind it. "To stop Martin," my father went on, "would be only to lose the money; but to stop you would be to get somebody killed." I knew what my father meant. He meant that no one would undertake to rob Abner until after he had shot him to death. I ought to say a word about my Uncle Abner. He was one of those austere, deeply religious men who were the product of the Reformation. He always carried a Bible in his pocket and he read it where he pleased. Once the crowd at Roy's Tavern tried to make sport of him when he got his book out by the fire; but they never tried it again. When the fight was over Abner paid Roy eighteen silver dollars for the broken chairs and the table--and he was the only man in the tavern who could ride a horse. Abner belonged to the church militant, and his God was a war lord. So that is how they came to send me. The money was in greenbacks in packages. They wrapped it up in newspaper and put it into a pair of saddle-bags, and I set out. I was about nine years old. No, it was not as bad as you think. I could ride a horse all day when I was nine years old--most any kind...

About this title

From the Back Cover

First published in 1918, Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries is an anthology of detective stories written by Melville Davisson Post. The popular stories within this collection were serialized in national magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post in the early 20th century.

Uncle Abner is an amateur detective in present-day Harrison County, West Virginia. Throughout his journeys around this antebellum wilderness, long before the nation had a proper police system, the honest Uncle Abner is confronted by murders and mysteries that cannot be ignored. With uncanny intuition, impressive logic, and keen observation of human actions, Uncle Abner is Melville Davisson Post’s most celebrated literary creation and is considered to be one of the most important texts in American detective and crime fiction.

This new edition contains an introduction by Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire novels. 

About the Author

Melville Davisson Post (1869 1930) was a West Virginia author and attorney best known for his stories featuring Uncle Abner, an amateur detective and backwoodsman who solves mysteries and hands out justice in the years before the Civil War. Post s other iconic creation is the amoral lawyer Randolph Mason, whose exploits on behalf of his criminal clients helped to establish the legal thriller genre.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tom Stacey
• Publication date: 1972
• ISBN 10: 0854681310
• ISBN 13: 9780854681310
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240