Afterword: J. A. Jance’s Literary Roots
[SPOILER NOTICE: This chapter is an author’s afterword, not a continuation of the novel’s plot. It contains no fictional spoilers but offers personal background. Read on without worry if you want to understand the cultural heartbeat of the book.]
Summary
J. A. Jance opens the afterword with a brief biography of Harold Bell Wright: a preacher’s kid who lost his mother, was abandoned by his father, and survived a harsh childhood painting houses with lead‑based paint that permanently damaged his lungs. Wright became a minister and wrote his first novel, That Printer of Udell’s, to read to his congregation. His second, Shepherd of the Hills, made him the first fiction author to sell a million copies. Ignored by the literary elite because his publisher was in Chicago and his books sold through Sears catalogs, Wright later moved to Tucson for his health. There he befriended Tohono O’odham storytellers and, worried their oral tales might vanish, used a shorthand secretary to record their legends. The result was the little‑known volume Long Ago Told.
Jance first encountered Wright’s name in her grandparents’ South Dakota farmhouse, and years later, as a school librarian on the Papago Reservation, she stumbled across a mimeographed version of “I’itoi and Eagle Man”—without knowing it came from Wright’s collection. She later broke a winter‑telling taboo, learned the rule, and eventually acquired a rare copy of Long Ago Told. She deliberately wove Wright’s preserved stories into every Walker Family novel, including Blessing of the Lost Girls. A final anecdote recounts how she read the legend of the night‑blooming cereus at Tucson’s Tohono Chul arboretum with a medicine man’s blessing, even as snake handlers cleared rattlers away. Jance closes by affirming that the ancient stories are timeless and that she hopes readers didn’t skip the “Indian stuff,” because those threads reflect our shared humanity.
Key Events
- Harold Bell Wright’s hardscrabble origin: orphaned, lead‑damaged lungs, determination to become a minister.
- Wright’s literary breakthrough with Shepherd of the Hills, selling via Sears catalogs rather than New York publishing.
- His move to Tucson and collaboration with Tohono O’odham elders; the creation of Long Ago Told in a print run of only five thousand copies.
- Jance’s childhood discovery of Shepherd of the Hills in her grandparents’ attic.
- Her job as a school librarian on the Papago Reservation, telling “I’itoi and Eagle Man” and the fallout from violating the winter‑telling rule.
- Her research‑librarian quest that reconnected her with Wright’s collection through interlibrary loan.
- The birthday gift of a rare first edition of Long Ago Told.
- The Tohono Chul reading of the cereus legend, sanctioned by a medicine man, with rattlesnakes relocated to ensure the storyteller’s luck held.
Character Development
Although this is a nonfiction afterword, Jance presents herself as a character on a lifelong literary pilgrimage. She evolves from a curious girl in a farmhouse attic to a respectful custodian of Indigenous stories. Her initial ignorance about seasonal storytelling taboos gives way to deep reverence for the cultural rules. By the time she stands at the cereus bloom with a medicine man’s approval, she has become a bridge between Wright’s preservation work and contemporary readers. The portrait of Harold Bell Wright frames him as a determined outsider whose lung ailment led him to the reservation, transforming him from a bestselling novelist into an accidental folklorist.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Cultural Preservation Versus Erasure: Wright’s fear that the stories would die with their tellers drives his recording project; Jance’s reuse of them is an extension of that preservation.
- The Power of Place: South Dakota farmhouse, Papago desert, Tucson arboretum—each setting holds a story that shapes the author’s identity and her novels.
- The Timelessness of Oral Tradition: The legend of the cereus blooms in both ancient campfires and a modern book release party, transcending boundaries of ethnicity, language, and era.
- Outsider Status: Wright’s Chicago‑based, Sears‑catalog novels parallel the way I’itoi tales were ignored by the literary mainstream, yet both endure.
- Breath and Voice: Damaged lungs—Wright’s and the elders’—contrast with the enduring breath of spoken stories, a subtle link between physical frailty and immortal words.
Why This Chapter Matters
The afterword transforms Blessing of the Lost Girls from a standalone thriller into the latest thread in a long, living tapestry. Without this chapter, the Tohono O’odham legends embedded in the Walker Family series might appear to be researched set‑dressing. Jance reveals they are a deeply personal inheritance, passed from Wright’s shorthand notebook to her grandmother’s attic to the printed page. This context enriches every mention of I’itoi or Eagle Man, grounding the supernatural elements in authentic cultural transmission. It also challenges readers to reconsider what they might have dismissed as “Indian stuff,” underscoring that the stories within stories are as vital as the murder mystery itself.
Study Questions and Answers
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What role did Sears and Roebuck play in Harold Bell Wright’s literary career?
Because his publisher was based in Chicago and his books were sold through the Sears catalog, Wright was overlooked by the New York literary establishment. Yet that distribution route placed his novels in farmhouses across America, making him the first million‑copy fiction author and allowing a young J. A. Jance to discover Shepherd of the Hills in a South Dakota attic. -
How does Jance’s violation of the winter‑telling rule illustrate the difference between simply reading a legend and understanding its cultural context?
Jance knew the text of “I’itoi and Eagle Man” but not the seasonal restriction; telling it in April risked harm from awakened snakes and lizards. This mistake taught her that oral traditions carry living rules beyond the printed page, a lesson she later honored when seeking a medicine man’s permission for the cereus reading. -
Why does Jance call Long Ago Told “one of my best‑loved and most‑used books”?
The rare volume isn’t just a collector’s item—it is the direct source for the legends threaded through her Walker Family novels. It embodies Wright’s mission to preserve stories for future generations, a mission Jance continues. Each use of a legend ties her fiction to a century‑old act of cross‑cultural friendship.