First published in 1973 by Grossman/Viking, reprinted by Avon in 1974; facsimile reprint by Texas Christian University Press in 1990 as Number 15 in The Texas Tradition Series, with an introduction by the author and an afterword by series editor James Ward Lee.

Winner of the Jesse H. Jones Award for the Best Novel of 1973 by the Texas Institute of Letters and the award from the Southwestern Library Association for the novel of 1973 that "made the most significant and enjoyable contribution to an understanding of the Southwest."

"Orphaned as a child and reared by an Anglo family, Raphael Mendez lives in a nether world, neither de la raza nor Anglo. Having dropped out of graduate school after a squabble with his fellowship sponsors, he is foreman of the ranch of his childhood. Paired against Mendez in this striking first novel is his cousin, Manuelo - practically illiterate, broke, the father of six starving children, and unable to find work. When Manuelo's desperation pushes him to the other side of the law, Mendez must choose sides."

"Perhaps the most auspicious debut for a Southwest writer since Larry McMurtry's Horseman, Pass By." - Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

"....a sympathetic and fairly subtle study of the intellectual who straddles the line between revolution and co-option (by virtue of his cleverness) into the ruling class." - Kirkus Reviews.

"Throughout the story, Smith beautifully evokes the Southwest. In rich flashbacks and interior monologues, he somehow makes this bleak landscape into a convincing correlative for his characters' gnawing despair." - Publishers Weekly.

"A serious, successful novel, rich in regional detail, with a carefully developed story line and believable characters." - Library Journal

"This introspective Western orchestrates a variety of conflicts into a composition with a distinctively original texture....C.W. Smith's technique has the impact of Claude Simon...who creates arresting amalgams of past, present, reverie, and locale. Can't do much better than that." -- New York Times.

"Surely one of the most gratifying experiences of good reading is its ability to bring us into contact with cultures not our immediate own. C.W. Smith, in this splendid first novel, offers us this kind of reward....Recommended." - Best Sellers.

"Thin Men of Haddam is remarkable in its sure hand in plotting, its management of diverse moods and character, its succinct, quotable lines of wisdom...its story-telling drive, its suspense...deserves to be widely read because of its sure touch and its relevancy..." - Western American Literature

Full texts of reviews (in .pdf files):

Review from Dallas Morning News

Review from Library Journal

Review from Sunstone Review

Review from Publisher's Weekly

Review from Minnesota Daily

Review from Best Sellers

Review from Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Review from El Paso Times

Review from the New York Times

Citations and References to Thin Men of Haddam:

A Literary History of the American West

Texas Historical Literature - 3

Handbook of Texas Online - LITERATURE

For orders:

ISBN 0-87565-078-3 www.prs.tcu.edu/

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