by Jess Walter
In setting a fictionalized story among real historical figures and events, I have endeavored to trace a basic chronology and outline of what happened. Much of what the real people do and say in the book came directly from books or newspaper accounts of the time. What happens to the historical figures in the novel is generally what happened to them in life.
The free speech riots of 1909 and 1910 really did occur in Spokane, and five hundred transient workers, socialists, and unionists were jailed, often under brutal conditions. At least three prisoners died upon their release. Police officers were killed before and after—and their killings went unsolved for years. The history involving the tribes, the horse slaughter camp and the hangings at Latah Creek are true, horrific events. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s campaign to raise money, her arrest, her exposing jail corruption, her trial (in fact, she had two trials, which I have condensed into one)—these all occurred.
But this is a work of fiction. Dates and events have been altered, names have been changed, motives and actions invented. I urge readers to treat even the historical figures as fictional characters. A fictional Gurley Flynn and a fictional John Sullivan set in a fictional Spokane, all seen through a fictional lens.
For those who want to learn more, there are some great books about these people and their time that were useful in my research:
The Rebel Girl: An Autobiography (My First Life 1906–1926) by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (International Publishers, 1955) and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: Modern American Revolutionary by Lara Vapnak in the Lives of American Women series, edited by Carol Berkin (Westview Press, 2015).
Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology edited by Joyce L. Kornbluh (CH Kerr Publishing, 1955); Solidarity Forever: An Oral History of the IWW by Stewart Bird, Deborah Shaffer, and Dan Georgakas (Lakeview, 1985); The Wobblies: The Story of the IWW and Syndicalism in the United States by Patrick Renshaw (Ivan R. Dee Publishing, 1967).
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009); Big Trouble by J. Anthony Lukas (Touchstone Books, 1997); Joe Hill by Wallace Stegner (Doubleday Books, 1950); Bad Land: An American Romance by Jonathan Raban (Vintage Books, 1996); Pinkerton’s Great Detective: The Amazing Life and Times of James McParland by Beau Riffenburgh (Viking, 2013); The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett by Nathan Ward (Bloomsbury, 2015).
Showtown: Theater and Culture in the Pacific Northwest, 1890–1920 by Holly George (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017); Selling Sex in the Silver Valley by Dr. Heather Branstetter (History Press, 2017); Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute, author unknown, edited by Ivy Anderson and Devon Angus (Heyday Publishing, California Historical Society, 2015).
The terrific Inland Northwest and natural histories of Jack Nisbet, most recently Ancient Places: People and Landscape in the Emerging Northwest (Sasquatch Books, 2015); the pictorial history books of Tony and Suzanne Bamonte, most notably Spokane: Our Early History (Tornado Creek Publications, 2012) and Life Behind the Badge Vol II (Walsworth Publishing, 2010); African Americans in Spokane by Jerrelene Williamson (Arcadia Publishing, 2010); Vanishing Seattle by Clark Humphrey (Arcadia Publishing, 2006); People of the Falls by David H. Chance (Kettle Falls Historical Center, 1986); and The Spokane Dictionary, compiled by Barry F. Carlson and Pauline Flett (Alex Sherwood/Mary Owhi Moses Memorial Trust, 1989).
I’d like to give special thanks to the Salish School of Spokane, the dynamic immersion school committed to preserving and revitalizing the language of the Spokanes and other Inland Northwest tribes by teaching children and adults of all ages. Thanks to Christopher Parkin for help with an especially delicate translation (and a great suggestion for a character’s line). Please visit www.salishschoolofspokane.org for information about supporting their work.
Thanks also to Spokane writer and historian Jim Kershner, and to Eastern Washington University professor of history and author Bill Youngs, both of whom should be absolved of blame for any Apple watches or cell phones that appear in this novel. The great Spokane newsman Bill Morlin, either anticipating the research I would need, or just to remind me that he’s always two steps ahead, independently wrote pieces about the history of Taft, Montana, for the New York Times and the Spokesman-Review that I highly recommend.
Much of my research involved hours in the stacks and in front of microfilm at the Spokane Public Library, reading newspapers from that time, including the Spokesman-Review, the Spokane Chronicle, the Spokane Press, and the Industrial Worker (and longing for a time when newspapers flourished that way). As stacks are being consolidated and digitized, I want to especially thank the staff in the Ned M. Barnes Northwest Room at the Spokane Public Library for letting me wander. There’s nothing like the shelves of an actual physical library when you’re unsure of what it is you’re seeking. It was in the Northwest Room that I was steered toward a terrific resource, Jonathan David Knight’s 1991 Masters in History Thesis from Washington State University, The Spokane and Fresno Free-Speech Fights of the Industrial Workers of the World (1909–1911). A big thank-you to Mr. Knight.
Thanks to a few writer friends who read pages along the way and made suggestions, among them: Anthony Doerr, Shawn Vestal, Sherman Alexie, Anne Walter, Jim Lynch, Sam Ligon, and Katy Sewall. A special thanks to Katy for her continued help with research, organization, and encouragement.
A great thanks to my editor, Jennifer Barth, for her calm, smart, steady hand, and for pushing me to make the book better, and to my agent Warren Frazier, for his friendship and counsel, and to everyone at Harper and John Hawkins and Associates.
The roots of this novel go back to my grandfather Jess Walter, and his stories of hopping trains as a young man to find itinerant work around the west. And to my father, Bruce, a lifelong union man who passed on his steadfast belief in fairness to my sister, Kristie, my brother, Ralph, and me. And finally, I want to give the biggest thank-you to my kids, Alec, Ava, and Brooklyn, and to my wife, Anne, for the profound love, support, and inspiration.
About the Author
JESS WALTER is the author of the number one New York Times bestseller Beautiful Ruins, the national bestseller The Financial Lives of the Poets, the National Book Award finalist The Zero, the Edgar Award–winning Citizen Vince, Land of the Blind, the New York Times Notable Book Over Tumbled Graves, and the story collection We Live in Water. He lives in Spokane, Washington, with his family.
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Also by Jess Walter
FICTION
We Live in Water
Beautiful Ruins
The Financial Lives of the Poets
The Zero
Citizen Vince
Land of the Blind
Over Tumbled Graves
NONFICTION
Ruby Ridge (previously released as Every Knee Shall Bow)
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE COLD MILLIONS. Copyright © 2020 by Jess Walter. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Cover design by Milan Bozic
Cover image © Boris Smirnov-Rusetsky, Boundless, 1979/Bridgeman Images (sky)
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Walter, Jess, 1965- author.
; Title: The cold millions : a novel / Jess Walter.
Description: First Edition. | New York, NY : Harper, [2020]
Identifiers: LCCN 2020000620 (print) | LCCN 2020000621 (ebook) | ISBN 9780062868084 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780063029699 | ISBN 9780062868107 (ebook)
Classification: LCC PS3573.A4722834 C65 2020 (print) | LCC PS3573.A4722834 (ebook) | DDC 813/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000620
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000621
Digital Edition OCTOBER 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-286810-7
Version 08122020
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-286808-4
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