Books: Early American

LONG HUNT—James Boyd—Scribner ($2.50).

This is the third novel of an author whose first book was a bestseller, who has written each book better than the last. All of them U. S. historical novels, each succeeding one smells less of the lamp, more of the country. Long Hunt is redolent of the West of 1800.

Murfree Rinnard was a trapper who hated houses, loved the woods; he knew the forests of Tennessee, "Kaintuck," North Carolina like the back of his hand. When he had a load of furs he came to town to get drunk,...