Perseverance. This item is unavailable.Perseverance

It was 1932, the depths of the Great Depression, and thousands of desperate people rode the rails in search of jobs, homes, and hope. For some, the tracks were a road to nowhere, a dead end in a boxcar or under the wheels or in a sea of emptiness. Their fate seemed certain-until Ish Watson grabbed the rungs of a passing freight train bound for a dying relative on the Texas Gulf Coast. He brought with him the traits bestowed by his rural upbringing faith, conviction and dedication. But now he faced thundering wheels ready to mutilate and knife-wielding hobos restless to kill, a barreling train anxious to derail and railway "bulls" itching to shoot. Only here in life's trenches would he meet up with the dregs of society: the wayward and the runaways, the dope addicts and the prostitutes, the winos and criminals. The locomotive's black smoke drifted back down the line to cove them all like a shroud, but it was more than death they faced-for this train would not stop until it carried them all to their destinies. And their only hope was Ish's perseverance. This provocative novel, by a finalist for the Spur Award of Western Writers of America, may well challenge your perspective on life.

Winner of the Spur Award of Western Writers of America, Patrick Dearen wears two hats. As a historian and folklorist, he digs deeply into the lore and legend of the West and produces books that appeal to both scholars and general readers. As a novelist, he draws on this reservoir of knowledge and crafts stories of people interacting with a harsh and yet beautiful environment. The author of twenty-four books, Dearen was born in 1951 and grew up in the small West Texas town of Sterling City. He earned a bachelor of journalism from The University of Texas at Austin in 1974 and received nine national and state awards as a reporter for two West Texas daily newspapers. An authority on the Pecos and Devils rivers of Texas, Dearen also has gained recognition for his knowledge of old-time cowboy life. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he preserved the firsthand accounts of 76 men who cowboyed before 1932. These interviews, along with decades of archival study, have enriched Dearen's fourteen novels and led to ten nonfiction books. Dearen has also been honored by the Academy of Western Artists, West Texas Historical Association, Western Fictioneers, San Antonio Conservation Society, New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, and Will Rogers Medallion Awards. A backpacking enthusiast and ragtime pianist, he makes his home in Midland, Texas with his wife Mary (managing editor of the Midland Reporter-Telegram).