Book review by Myra Salzer
Rotating back and forth between fiction and nonfiction seems to be a fun balance for me, as does reading materials that bring a new perspective to my commonly held beliefs. This book, Gilded Mountain, by Kate Manning, is a historic novel set in Colorado in the early 1900s. I was drawn to it because I know so little about my state’s history. This book filled in many gaps, which I will get into later.
Politically, it was the antithesis of Atlas Shrugged, the Ayn Rand pro-capitalist book of the ‘50s. Gilded Mountain takes place in a marble-mining town, high in the Rockies, in southern Colorado. The story’s protagonist, Sylvie, is the daughter of a miner who falls in love with the influential mine owner’s son. It turns out that her lover’s half-brother is the product of the rape of a Black cook who worked for the owner. As a result, Sylvie has a toe in each camp – the money camp, the pro-union camp, and the anti-racist camp.
The reader can viscerally understand why unions were needed. It’s hard not to sympathize with the miners and town folk who were at the mercy of the story’s abusive company owner. The abuses were graphic and realistic. And when there were strikes, the town owners brought in scabs, some of whom were Black, to manufacture tension between the miners and the Black people and detract from the real issue at stake – poor working conditions and abuse. The book takes place during the Jim Crow era after slavery was abolished. There was quite an uproar after the December 27th Boxing Day when fighter Jack Johnson became the first Black heavyweight champion of the world (this true event was also weaved into the story). There were even a few references to how the land was stolen from the Ute Indians.
I learned of Dearfield, Colorado, the city established for and exclusively inhabited by Black people. It must have been less than an hour from where I live and yet I have never heard of this town. Mary Harris Jones was a real-life union organizer who also played a role in the book (she lived to be 100). The founding of the NAACP and the historic 1909 avalanche that wiped out the mining town were also deftly woven into the storyline. I did not know that former Denver mayor Stapleton and Colorado Governor Morley were members of the Ku Klux Klan, nor how profoundly the dust bowl drought affected Colorado.
This book is entertaining and informative, and I highly recommend it!