Spencer’s Mountain
By Earl Hamner, Jr. (Buccaneer Books, 1961)
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 247
Via: Interlibrary Loan (Richland Public Library, Richland, WA)
”Times is changen on this old earth, papa, and it looks like we’re goen to have to change right along with ‘em. I don’t mean me and Livy and Mama, but there’s some kind of world out there waiten for my babies and I aim to see ‘em get whatever they can out of it.” – Clay Spencer, Spencer’s Mountain
You may know it as “Walton’s Mountain.” But did you know that the beloved television series about a family growing up in rural Virginia during the Great Depression and WWII created and narrated by Earl Hamner, Jr. was based on his 1961 book Spencer’s Mountain and the 1963 film of the same name? The movie stars Henry Fonda (Clay Spencer), Maureen O’Hara (Olivia Spencer) and James MacArthur (Clay-Boy Spencer. MacArthur is too old for the part, in my opinion. But who’s counting?)
The Story
In book and film, Spencer’s Mountain is the story of young Clay-Boy’s dream of becoming the first in his family to not only graduate from high school but to get a college education to boot. It’s a story of how the whole family pitches in to scrimp and save and sacrifice and hornswoggle into making Clay-Boy’s dream a reality. Indeed, Spencer’s Mountain is what family classics used to be. The love and loyalty of the tight-knit Spencer clan shines through on page after page. It’s heartwarming and heartening.
The movie parallels the book pretty closely. Some of the movie dialogue is lifted verbatim directly from the book.
Characters:
In the book and in the movie the Spencer (Walton) children are:
- Becky (Mary Ellen) who wants to be a nurse
- Matt (Jim Bob) is a born mechanic
- Shirley (Eric) is “a little prissy but she’ll get over it in time.”
- Luke (Jason) is “a master hand at piano-playen.”
- Mark (Ben) has all the earmarks of a go-getter business man.
- John (John Boy?) is an artist.
- Pattie Cake (Elizabeth) is “too early yet for her to do anything but kissen and huggen and she’s pretty good at both.”
Mama and Daddy are Clay and Olivia Spencer in both book and movie. Rounding out the family in the novel are Donnie the baby and the twins, Franklin Delano and Eleanor. I kid you not. And of course, says patriarch Clay Spencer, “every one of those babies is thoroughbreds.”
Regarding characters, Olivia is considerably more …. fiery in both the book and the movie than she is in the TV show. And father Clay Spencer is considerably… wilder than Ralph Waite’s patient, understanding papa in the TV show. Henry Fonda’s portrayal of Clay Spencer in the movie is 100% spot-on. But we’d expect that from Fonda, right? And yes, the character of Claris Coleman is as ridiculous in the book as it is in the movie. (Insert eye roll here.) Chance the cow is in both the book and the TV show. In case you’re wondering. So are sisters Etta and Emma of “papa’s recipe” fame (the Baldwin sisters in the show).
Writing Style
Hamner’s writing style is both understated and eloquent. He has the ability to immerse the reader so completely into the story that you feel like you’re not just a bystander observing events as they’re narrated, but that you’re actually in the story. Part of it Sitting down at the raucous family dinner table with nine kids. Opening the “friendship corner” library staffed by Clay-Boy. Hearing the whine of the power saw as Clay and Clay-Boy fell trees for Clay’s storied house on the mountain.
Differences
One thing that appears only in the book and no where else is the white deer. That’s kind of important. You’ll get that if you read the book.
Also, the settings are different. The book is set in the tiny company town of New Dominion, Virginia in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The TV show is also set in Virginia. But the movie is set in Wyoming. Maybe to take full advantage of the spectacular Tetons.
Now, in the hands of a lesser talent, Spencer’s Mountain could’ve been just a pleasant, entertaining story about a large family growing up during the Depression. But Hamner is no lesser talent. He’s a master storyteller.
Hamner also has a flair for dialogue as evident in the many colorful conversations between Clay and Clay-Boy, Olivia, or the whole Spencer fam, including grandparents, six uncles, and nine kids. (Before the twins.)
Butterfly-Beautiful
What slowly emerges from this literary cocoon of homespun wit, wisdom, and warmth is a little gem of a novel about family, love, and loyalty that’s butterfly-beautiful. It takes flight and wings its way straight into your heart. In fact, after a while the Spencer clan feels like… family. The closing pages could wring tears from a turnip. I got so caught up in the story, I hated to see it end.
And that, friends, is the mark of a true classic.
“As the truck pulled out of the yard, Clay-Boy looked for as long as he could back at the house. He wished for one moment that the truck would turn around and take him back and that he could relive every moment he had known in that house, but then the house was gone in a turning of the road, and only the memory of the warmth and happiness and love he had known there remained in his mind.”
Deja Vu?
Kindly note that this isn’t my first time through this book. I first read Spencer’s Mountain under a blistering summer sun in 2002. Grabbed it off a shelf in the public library in Bandera, Texas. It was August. The closing pages of Spencer’s Mountain also take place in August. And, well. Here we are. Or as that famous philosopher Yogi Berra once said, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”
And that’s fine by me.
“I hope that you’ll remember this house as I do. The mystical blue ridges that stretch beyond it into infinity; the sound of warm voices drifting out upon the night air; a family waiting, and a light in the window. Good night.” – The Revel, Final Episode of Season 9 of The Waltons and Series Finale.
‘Goodnight John-Boy.’
Pages & Paws 