Pulitzer Prize Fiction Winner
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
by Robert Lewis Taylor
Summary
A wry, bookish thirteen year old narrates the journey of Jaimie and his feckless physician father as they join the rush to the California gold fields in 1849, encountering a parade of frontier eccentrics along the way. Taylor leans on the picaresque tradition, blending tall tale humor with period detail drawn from diaries and newspapers. It offered midcentury readers a comic counterweight to the era's heavier psychological fiction.
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Historical Context & Significance
A lighter, more traditional choice that followed the 19th century adventure tradition, contrasting with the heavier psychological novels of the era.