#38 Mystery At Devil's Paw (1973 Revised Text)

[tomswift2002]

So I just finished the 1973 Revised Text of Mystery At Devil's Paw, and I must say that it is a strange one, at least from a 2018 perspective.

Just some background on the book first.  Mystery At Devil's Paw was first published in 1959, and it was the second original text to be written with just 20 chapters, after The Clue At Skeleton Rock;plus Paw had close to 190 pages, rather than what would become ordinary for the 20 chapter books, about 180 pages.  In 1958 the book was written to celebrate Alaska becoming a State of the United States of America.  In 1972, it was decided to update the book in order to remove references to Alaska as "the new State" and to shorten the book to the 180 page range.

I'm not sure whether by 1970's standards it was outdated to call an American Indian woman a "squaw", however, there were a few occasions where they were called that, plus most Indian men were labelled as "Indian braves".  Coming from a 2018 perspective, if this book were written today, that would not be accepted, and would be called politically incorrect and racially insensitive.  I'm not usually one for political correctness, however, as the last book to be revised 45 years ago, it was surprising to read something that would've fit more in with the attitudes of the 1920's and 30's in books like Hunting For Hidden Gold (1928) and Footprints Under The Window (1931). 

As for the story, the mystery is really the B-plot of the story, whle the A-plot is an adventure story, exploring Alaska.  I really didn't enjoy this, and was kind of wondering when the story was going to be finished.

Rating: 5.5 out 10 (and I'm not taking the policitical correctness thing into consideration, this what I think of the story overall).