There’s a story that crops up on the margins of David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon that’s fascinated me for years. It’s the story of the Osage writer John Joseph Mathews, who, in the 1920s and ’30s, became one of a hauntingly small number of American Indian authors to receive national attention for their work. Decades before modern culture rediscovered the so-called Osage murders—first through Grann’s mega-bestselling book, then through Martin Scorsese’s film adaptation, opening this week to radiant reviews—Mathews wrote about them. And not only did he write about them, he lived through the time when they happened; observed their effects; was shaped by them, to a degree. Mathews in turn played a significant role in shaping the future course of Native American literature. It would be fitting if the popularity of Killers of the Flower Moon led more people to rediscover the work of this important, and semi-forgotten, American writer.
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