Beadle's Pocket Novels No. 57: Hunter Ham

Museum Catalog Note *Hunter Ham; or, The Outlaw's Crime* by J. Edgar Iliff, serialized in this September 2, 1876 issue of a Beadle and Adams dime novel, presents a frontier murder tale set along the Ohio River in Kentucky. The narrative opens with Eustace Everard, a vain frontiersman obsessed with protecting his pale complexion, attempting to ambush and shoot his own brother Allen from the willows. Eustace seeks to eliminate Allen out of rivalry for the affections of Edna Wheeler. Though Eustace fires and believes he has killed his brother, Allen survives the wound and secretly steers his canoe to shore. Allen, shocked and bewildered, realizes his brother attempted murder but cannot comprehend the motive. The story establishes themes of fratricidal ambition, jealous passion, and frontier violence against a romantic frontier setting.