Shorty Harris, or the Price of Gold : A Novel

Americans are seekers. Shorty Harris, or The Price of Gold is the story of a legendary desert prospector who spent his whole life searching for gold and, when he found it, gave it away.

He died broke in 1934 and wrote his own epitaph: "Here lies Shorty Harris, a single blanket jackass prospector".William W.

Bevis's sweeping western novel begins during the gold rush of 1849 and brings Shorty from violin lessons in Providence, Rhode Island, to the mining camps of Nevada, then follows the misfortunes and mistakes that leave him, finally, estranged from family and society, facing only himself. The wild boom towns built on Shorty's strikes -- Rhyolite and Harrisburg -- the vivid stories, gold fever, and colorful characters, all play out against his obsessive search for gold.

But this is also the story of a desert consciousness, and Death Valley is a major character.

As Shorty slowly and painfully learns the land -- the desert plants and animals, and their subtle, necessary rhythms of waiting, finding, and letting go -- his search also becomes, ironically, a quest for harmony with the land he exploits.