R. A. Lafferty (1914-2002) was a writer and retired newspaperman in
Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has written many stories and several books,
including Archipelago, The Devil Is Dead, Not to Mention Camels,
and Ringing Changes.
Geary Hobson is Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma,
author of the novel The Last of the Ofos, and editor of The
Remembered Earth: An Anthology of Contemporary Native American
Literature.
"[Okla Hannali] is elemental Americana and a great deal of
fun."--Wall Street Journal
"It's an American classic."--Voice Literary Supplement
"The history of the Choctaw Indians has been told before and is
still being told, but it has never been told in the way Lafferty
tells it....Hannali is a buffalo bull of a man who should become
one of the enduring characters in the literature of the American
Indian."--Dee Brown
"The use of the epic form is unusual and effective, and Lafferty's
humor is both subtle and boisterous: he writes with warmth and
sympathy for the Indian. This is a valuable addition to the growing
literature on the subject.--Library Journal
"This curious and wonderful tall tale contributes to the
apocalyptic revision of American history that began with Little Big
Man and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. It's the tale of Hannali
Innominee, a 'Mingo' or natural lord of the 19th-century Choctaw
Indian [and] a capacious, indomitable giant of the ilk of Paul
Bunyan....Lafferty tells it straight: how the Choctaw nation, once
removed, reconstituted itself and thrived in Indian territory....,
how there came a schism between the rich, part-white, slave-owning,
moneylending Choctaws and the 'feudal, compassionate, chauvinistic'
full-blooded freeholders like Hannali; and how, during the Civil
War, the Indians were manipulated divide-and-conquer fashion in
helping destroy each other."-Kirkus Reviews.
Ask a Question About this Product More... |