Buffalo Nickel

Interlaced with Kiowa legends that make the story a vivid tapestry of fable and fact, Buffalo Nickel is an all-American novel of love, money, and race—and an epic work of historical imagination. At its heart is a rags-to-riches story of an Indian who becomes an oil-rich millionaire overnight and the two women who vie for his money or his love, one of whom hopes to parlay his fortune into movie stardom while the other hopes to save him from greedy predators and restore him to his true Native American identity. -- “This is a western novel in the most positive sense, a book that reveals a moment in history even as it tells a story of cultural alienation, love, greed, betrayal and longing.….Though the book spans just 25 years, the emotional and physical distances Smith's characters travel are immense, and his loving narrative makes Buffalo Nickel a compelling read.” Publishers Weekly

In the tradition of Lonesome Dove, C. W. Smith's novel Buffalo Nickel is a sprawling saga of love and money based on the real life of a man known to the press in the 1920s as "the world's richest Indian." When oil was struck on his Oklahoma farm in in 1917, a Kiowa called David Copperfield by his missionary teachers became an millionaire overnight and so began to live out the destiny implied by his Indian name, Went On A Journey. From his childhood in the tamed West (where buffalo are imported from the Bronx Zoo) to his career as professional Indian in Hollywood Westerns, the story of Buffalo Nickel vividly evokes all the drama and agony of living between two cultures. At the very heart of the story is an explosive triangle as two women vie for his money or his love: Laura Darby, a washed-up vaudeville singer who hopes to parlay his fortune into movie stardom; and Iola Conroy, a childhood Kiowa friend and Red Cross nurse who follows David to California, where she is forced to confront David's marriage—and her own identity. David and those around him are trapped in the tumultuous upheaval following the conquest of the Plains Tribes until thwarted desires rage into an explosive climax. “This is a western novel in the most positive sense, a book that reveals a moment in history even as it tells a story of cultural alienation, love, greed, betrayal and longing.….Though the book spans just 25 years, the emotional and physical distances Smith's characters travel are immense, and his loving narrative makes Buffalo Nickel a compelling read.” Publishers Weekly

C.W. Smith received The Lon Tinkle Award for "sustained excellence in a career" from the Texas Institute of Letters. He has published nine novels, a memoir, and a collection of stories, and his 11th book, the novel Steplings, appeared 2011. In addition, his journalism and essays have appeared in many magazines and periodicals, including Esquire, Texas Monthly, and scores of others. He is a former Dobie-Paisano Fellow at the University of Texas and a two-time grantee of National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in creative writing. He belongs to PEN, the Author's Guild, the Writer's Guild of America, West, and The Texas Institute of Letters. He's a kayak fanatic and a bicycling enthusiast who lives in Dallas with his wife, Marcia. He has one old dog, two grown children, and three growing grandkids. He was once a jazz tenor player and still runs some riffs in his sleep.