[In the following review of Tale of Valor, Havighurst observes that Fisher sticks to the historical facts of his story while rounding out individual characters and adding dramatic action.]

The Lewis and Clark expedition, one of the great adventures of all history, was so thoroughly documented that later generations can follow every step of the epic journey. Now, after the northwest wilderness has become a civilization, we can know what it was like to be the first travelers in that vast and virgin country. We can experience its grandeur and loneliness, its promise and danger.

In Tale of Valor Vardis Fisher has written a vivid and dramatic novel of the expedition. He follows the record, often quoting from the journals of Lewis and Clark and sometimes citing lesser documents. He invents nothing; in this action-packed adventure the novelist's problem is to select rather than to fabricate. He changes nothing; the record itself contains clashes of character, conflict of cultures, a seemingly endless series of crises, and a woman interest that recurs every time the robust young explorers encounter a new Indian tribe. What he does as a novelist is to fill out the individual characters, to reveal relationships, and to develop briefly recorded incidents into dramatic action.

Fisher knows the elemental northwest, he knows the tribal lore, he understands the thoughts and moods of men in arduous situations. His novel is a vastly detailed, closely reported narrative of this great undertaking. It is a long, full story, sometimes monotonous in its recounting of hardships and travail, but always harshly real.

At the center of the novel, as of the expedition, are the two captains. The author makes them both human and heroic. Brooding, reflective Meriwether Lewis was endlessly curious about the tribes, the wild game, the species of herbs and bushes. In the midst of danger and suffering he went on collecting specimens for President Jefferson. Quiet, even tempered, methodical William Clark made the practical decisions. He knew that survival of the corps, as it penetrated increasingly savage country, depended on discipline and order. The success of the expedition was a monument to the qualities which they brought to their shared command. Their ages were 30 and 34.

Around these leaders are the corpsmen, rugged, resolute, enduring. It is startling to know how young they were—17, 18, 20—John Colter, George Shannon, Bill Brattan, Bob Frazier, Clark's giant Negro servant York, and the rest. They shared the same perils, privations, and triumphs, but they were individual men. Fisher gives them their own thoughts, memories, and realizations.

History can be as surprising as any fiction: witness the presence here of the Indian slave girl, Sacajawea, tiny, patient, cheerful, enduring appalling hardship with a gentle smile. She bore her child in the wilderness winter and carried him on her back thru whole ranges of mountains. She could survive on half a man's ration and find roots and herbs for the famished corpsmen. When they added her to the party, thinking she might win them a welcome from the Shoshones, they supposed she would be a burden. Instead, she became a source of strength and an unforgettable figure in this tale of valor.