Henry Ware & Doc Savage - OD&D Inspiration

On to Doc Savage in just a moment.

The Young Trailers Series by Joseph A. Altsheler was written starting in 1907 and the 8th and final volume was written in 1912. It was written with an intended audience of teen boys.

The lead character is Henry Ware and his friend Paul Cotter and their friends Shif'less Sol Hyde, Long Jim Hart, and Silent Tom Ross.

Take note of the bolded portion above. Doc Savage was written by Lester Dent (October 12, 1904 – March 11, 1959) and the story was first published in 1933. So Lester Dent would have been 8 years old when The Young Trailers series was in print and most likely would have been available in the library. But at that time Lester Dent was in rural Wyoming but in 1919 at the age of 15 the family returned to La Plata, Missouri. And I think there is a good chance that he read The Young Trailers series or at least one of the books at sometime.

Referring back to the bolded portion above: Now let me list the sidekicks of Doc Savage:
Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett "Monk" Mayfair, Brigadier General Theodore Marley "Ham" Brooks, Colonel John "Renny" Renwick, Major Thomas J. "Long Tom" Roberts and William Harper "Johnny" Littlejohn.

Five sidekicks instead of four, but Long Jim and Long Tom are similar and if you read a couple of stories in both series there are other similarities between the sidekicks. The other thing is that Doc Savage can do anything that one of the five can do only better. Henry Ware can do anything that any of his buddies can do only better.

Just my opinion and it may be all wet since Lester Dent never told, but I have to believe that Henry Ware & Co was a part of the inspiration for Doc Savage & Co.

Has anyone ever done anything with a Doc Savage theme?


Now back to The Young Trailers Series

For your interest I am providing the Preface from the final volume titled The Border Watch. Take note that this was penned prior to World War I.

I have often thought that as a theme for an outdoor setting for OD&D I might just base it on this eight book series sometime.

PREFACE
"The Border Watch" closes the series which began with "The Young Trailers," and which was continued successively in "The Forest Runners," "The Keepers of the Trail," "The Eyes of the Woods," "The Free Rangers," "The Riflemen of the Ohio," and "The Scouts of the Valley." All the eight volumes deal with the fortunes and adventures of two boys, Henry Ware and Paul Cotter, and their friends Shif'less Sol Hyde, Silent Tom Ross and Long Jim Hart, in the early days of Kentucky. The action moves over a wide area, from New Orleans in the South to Lake Superior in the North, and from the Great Plains in the West to the land of the Iroquois in the East.

It has been the aim of the author to present a picture of frontier life, and to show the immense hardships and dangers endured by our people, as they passed through the wilderness from ocean to ocean. So much of it occurred in the shadow of the forest, and so much more of it was taken as a matter of course that we, their descendants, are likely to forget the magnitude of their achievement. The conquest of the North American continent at a vast expense of life and suffering is in reality one of the world's great epics.

The author has sought to verify every statement that touches upon historical events. He has read or examined nearly all the books and pamphlets and many of the magazine articles formerly in the Astor and Lenox, now in the New York Public Library, dealing with Indian wars and customs. In numerous cases, narratives written by observers and participants have been available. He believes that all the border battles are described correctly, and the Indian songs, dances and customs are taken from the relations of witnesses.

But the great mass of material dealing with the frontier furnishes another striking illustration of the old saying that truth is stranger than fiction. No Indian story has ever told of danger and escape more marvelous than those that happened hundreds of times. The Indian character, as revealed in numerous accounts, is also a complex and interesting study. The same Indian was capable of noble actions and of unparalleled cruelty. As a forest warrior he has never been excelled. In the woods, fighting according to his ancient methods, he was the equal alike of Frenchman, Englishman and American, and often their superior. Many of the Indian chiefs were great men. They had the minds of statesmen and generals, and they prolonged, for generations, a fight that was doomed, from the beginning.

We lost more people in our Indian wars than in all the others combined, except the Civil War. More American soldiers fell at St. Clair's defeat by the Northwestern Indians than in any other battle we had ever fought until Bull Run. The British dead at Braddock's disaster in the American wilderness outnumbered the British dead at Trafalgar nearly two to one. So valiant a race has always appealed to youth, at least, as a fit subject of romance.

The long struggle with the brave and wary red men bred a type of white foresters who became fully their equals in the craft and lore of the wilderness. Such as these stood as a shield between the infant settlements and the fierce tribes, and, in this class, the author has placed his heroes.

 As to his comments about the white foresters who became fully the equals of the brave and wary red men in the craft and lore of the wilderness, I think that translates directly to OD&D in perhaps the Ranger subclass of fighting men. Always out on the edge of the wilderness between the human/demihuman areas and the areas inhabited by monsters. Kind of makes a Ranger a necessary guide for those going off into the wilderness.

baronopal wrote:

I've been trying to find "archetypal examples" of the ranger that are wholly independent of Aragorn and The Lord of the Rings. This, Hawkeye from Last of the Mohicans, and the voyagers from 1800's eastern Canada have been helpful.

What do you think?