The Headless Horseman - A Strange Tale of Texas

Captain Mayne Reid, Thomas Mayne Reid

Skyhorse Publishing

2013

528 páginas

17h 36m

ISBN-13: 9781620874684

The Headless Horseman or A Strange Tale of Texas (1866).
====
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Headless_Horseman_(novel)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mayne_Reid
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headless_Horseman

The Headless Horseman is a novel by Thomas Mayne Reid, first published in monthly serialized form during 1865 and 1866, and subsequently published as a book in 1866, based on the author's adventures in the United States. "The Headless Horseman" or "A Strange Tale of Texas" was set in Texas and based on a south Texas folk tale.

The story is about an Irish adventurer and hero in the War with Mexico. First Lt. Reid, writing as "Captain Reid," penned a series of popular novels and attributed his headless horseman idea to a south Texas folk tale. Vladimir Nabokov recalled The Headless Horseman as a favorite adventure novel of his childhood years: "which had given him a vision of the prairies and the great open spaces and the overarching sky."

Texas soon after the War with Mexico. Louise Poindexter, a beautiful newcomer, is courted by two men - the arrogant and vindictive Cassius Calhoun and the dashing but poor mustanger Maurice Gerald. Calhoun plots to eliminate his rival when tragedy strikes: Louise's brother, the young Henry Poindexter is murdered. All clues point to Maurice Gerald as the assassin. At the same time a headless rider is spotted in the environs of the Poindexter plantation.

The novel was reportedly inspired by Creed Taylor's (1820–1906) true story of El Muerto, the Headless Horseman. Taylor was a veteran of the Texas Revolution, the War with Mexico, the Civil War and an Indian fighter, who was also involved in the Sutton–Taylor feud, once considered the state's longest and deadliest feud