Home from the Hill

A Novel

By: William Humphrey

Narrated by: Brian Troxell

National Book Award Finalist: The mesmerizing saga of a Texas family torn apart by passion and pride.

Twelve years after Hannah Hunnicutt was committed to a Dallas asylum, her body is brought home to northeast Texas to be buried alongside those of her husband and son. Etched on all three gravestones is the same date of death: May 28, 1939.

Home from the Hill is the story of that tragic day and the dramatic events leading up to it. The biggest landowner in the county, Captain Wade Hunnicutt was a charismatic war hero whose legendary hunting skills extended to the wives of his friends and neighbors. Humiliated by her husband's philandering, Hannah grew to despise Captain Wade but was too proud to ask for a divorce; instead, she devoted herself to her only child. Torn between his mother's adoration and an overwhelming need to win his father's approval, Theron tried to become his own man. And he might have succeeded if he hadn't fallen in love with the beautiful and innocent Libby Halstead.

William Humphrey's dazzling debut novel, the inspiration for a major motion picture starring Robert Mitchum, is a masterpiece of twentieth-century American literature, as intense and thrilling as the Hunnicutts themselves.

©1957, 1985 William Humphrey (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

ONE OF THE GREAT ONES

Thank you Audible. After 14 years of checking at least every quarter, I have finally been rewarded and I have been able to buy HOME FROME THE HILL on audio. I first read this wonderful novel in 1968, at which time it established itself in my top 10 favourites, where it has remained ever since, even after reading over 5,000 books. Ten years later I read it again and decided to write to William Humphrey. In those days, long before emails, it was an air mail letter from the antipodes to America. In that first letter I made the observation that I could not help but draw comparisons between him and James Agee: both grew up in small rural American communities, he in Clarksville, East Texas, Agee in Knoxsville, Tennessee, both lost their father in car accidents when they were boys, both wrote highly successful novels drawing on the impact the death of their father had on their young lives. Both went on to luminous literary careers, Agee posthumously winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1958 for A DEATH IN THE FAMILY. I felt that he, too, should have won the Pulitzer for HOME FROM THE HILL. We subsequently exchanged a number of letters, I sent him a copy of an early published short story of mine, THE DRY LAND, set in outback Australia, which I felt he would find interesting, and he very kindly sent me a copy of his recently published book, FARTHER OFF FROM HEAVEN, which dealt with his young life and coping with the death of his father. Fifty years later this is still on my book shelf, along with all of Bill’s novels and short stories.
In one of his letters Bill indicated he had not seen the movie, however, I feel he would not have been unhappy with Vincente Minnelli’s treatment of his novel and Robert Mitchum made a fine Wade Hunnicutt.
I believe William Humphrey is one of the finest writers of the 20th century and his skills have never been better displayed than in this, his first novel. If you enjoy family sagas set against a vivid background which is richly evocative of both time and place, you will be drawn into the drama of the Hunnicutts and the repercussions of their actions. In a sense it is a coming of age story with the sensitive young Theron caught in the conflict between his parents, striving to fit in with the wishes of his mother, Hannah, and win the approval of his powerful, demanding father. However, it is more than that, exploring the choices the characters make and depicting where those decisions will lead them, and there are few examples in literature that better show how the sins of the father may be visited upon the first born.
This is among a small number of books that I periodically read again to savour the pleasure of the prose, the interactions of the characters and the unfolding of the plot. THE GRAPES OF WRATH, THE EGYPTIAN. PLOUGH THE SEA, ALL THE KING’S MEN, LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL and THE PRINCE OF TIDES being some of the others.
From early times I have been inclined towards books with symbolic titles, often quotes from Shakespeare or the Old Testament. This was no exception, the title being drawn from Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous poem, Requiem, which was inscribed at his instructions as his epitaph on the sarcophagus that marks his grave on the summit of Vaca Mountain in Samoa.
“Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.”
I hope that some of my comments will influence you to check out this novel and feel sure you will not be disappointed. Happy reading. Eric
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