Originally published in 1944, Buffalo Coat appeared for several weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. The first adult novel written by acclaimed Idaho writer Carol Ryrie Brink, winner of the Newbery Award for the outstanding book of children's literature in 1936, Buffalo Coat has become a classic of Northwest literature. Buffalo Coat tells the tale of three doctors who came to Opportunity (Moscow), Idaho, in the 1890s seeking success and fortune in the town with the promising name. Yet each of their lives ended in tragedy.
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The themes of ambition, love and fortitude are set within the conflicts of a small western community in the late 1890's. The contrasting characters of the novel's three doctors reflect the motives and aspirations of immigrants attracted to the young town of Opportunity. The forthright Dr. Hawkins, the original owner of the buffalo coat, is a civic leader, ambitious and impulsive. His assistant from France, Constant Duval, searches for a refuge from his old world fears in this foreign region. Hugh Allerton, who unknowingly purchases the buffalo coat from his rival, Dr. Hawkins, is swept away by the new, wild country and his passions for the young and impetuous Jenny Walden.
On the edges of these lives lurks the hunted figure of Alf Stevens, the deranged young man whom Hawkins had once committed to a mental hospital. Alf's only consciousness of human kindness is through the beautiful Jenny. The intertwining of events and characters leads to destruction and death, and finally the buffalo coat comes home again.
—from the dust jacket
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