John Joseph Mathews, Sundown

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Sundown

is the second book published by Osage writer John Joseph Mathews. First published in 1934,

Sundown

, his only work of fiction, follows

Wah’Kon-Tah: The Osage and the White Man’sRoad

(1932). Subsequent books include:

Talking to the Moon

(1945),

Life and Death of anOilman: The Career of E.W. Marland

(1951) and

The Osages: Children of the Middle Waters

(1961). Most of Mathews’ writing consists of memoir, cultural and historical observation and reflection, as well as biography.

A seminal, but sometimes overlooked work, Sundown may be understood as a “late-modernist novel” that sets the “paradigm” for subsequent novelists of the “Native American Renaissance” – with its more acclaimed authors, such as N. Scott Momaday and Leslie Marmon Silko – who, like Mathews,

2529 words

Citation: Hada, Ken. "Sundown". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 March 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40574, accessed 21 November 2024.]

40574 Sundown 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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