Eight Mules from Monterey by Patricia Beatty

First published: 1982

Subjects: Family, gender roles, and travel

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Historical fiction

Time of work: The summer of 1916

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Locale: Monterey, California, and its surrounding area

Principal Characters:

• Fayette Ashmore, a thirteen-year-old who is seeking a way to impress her friends and help her mother get a job
• Herbert (Eubie) Ashmore, Fayette’s blond, blue-eyed, ten-year-old brother
• Lettie Ashmore, their widowed mother, who is training to be a librarian
• Edward Herbert, the law partner of the late Mr. Ashmore, who has asked Mrs. Ashmore to marry him
• Denver Murfree, a temperamental mule driver hired to accompany the family on the trip
• Gil (Possum) Turlock, a reserved mountain man with a dark past, who prefers animals and nature to people

Form and Content

In the first sentence of Eight Mules from Monterey, Patricia Beatty promises mules, a wild mountain man, and gunslinging moonshiners. All three do provide problems for the Ashmores as they endeavor to take library books to Big Tree Junction, in the Santa Lucia Mountains, forty miles south of Monterey. In this historical adventure story, the young characters Fayette and Eubie emulate their late father’s thirst for excitement (he was a Rough Rider with Teddy Roosevelt in the Spanish-American War). It is ironic that while visitors from all over the world flock to the Monterey peninsula to see the historic buildings and enjoy the beauty of the coast, Fayette and Eubie Ashmore find life there boring and ordinary. In addition, Fayette has another reason for wanting to go on the trip with her mother: She wants to impress the rich Hillman sisters, who brag about their grandmother on Nob Hill in San Francisco. This adolescent desire for acceptance is her main motivation, but Fayette is also concerned about the stability of her family’s living situation. When her mother reveals that Edward Herbert has proposed marriage, Fayette sees the trip as a way of possibly getting her mother a job and avoiding the acquisition of a stepfather.

The story is told from Fayette’s perspective, and her initial impression of Denver Murfree and his mule team is negative. He thinks that she is a boy, and Fayette had imagined her arrival at Big Tree Junction on a pure white steed, not a scrawny black mule. In the last five chapters of this eight-chapter book, the travelers meet colorful mountain folk, isolated from world events such as World War I and the new invention of motion pictures, with its stars Charlie Chaplin, Theda Bara, and Mary Pickford. Murfree is injured, and Gil Turlock (also known as Possum) assumes his position. Lettie Ashmore learns of his criminal past but has no choice but to accept him if she wants to move forward. In addition to handling tempermental mules, they find themselves holding a funeral service for a typhoid victim and being shot at by moonshiners. Turlock protects the family by drinking with the men but is banished by Mrs. Ashmore, who abhors his behavior and does not understand his motives. The Ashmores attempt to travel without him, but only his return allows them to complete their mission, the establishment of a lending library at Big Tree Junction.

Eight Mules from Monterey concludes with an author’s note in which Beatty outlines the factual content of the novel. The story is loosely based on a similar trip taken by Miss Anne Hadden in 1916. Except for the cover illustration by Ronald Himler, there are no illustrations or maps to help orient the reader.

Critical Context

From her first publication, Indian Canoemaker (1960), to her last book, Who Comes with Cannons?, published by her estate in 1992, Beatty combined more than fifty adventure stories with accurate historical detail. While some of Beatty’s earlier works, written in collaboration with her first husband, were set in England, Eight Mules from Monterey demonstrates her interest in American historical themes and her love of her adopted state of California.

Beatty’s greatest fascination was with the American Civil War, and her novels that explore life during that period are her most compelling. When the mountain people whom the Ashmores meet talk about war, they are referring to that conflict. In I Want My Sunday, Stranger (1977), a young Mormon boy looking for his horse follows a photographer from battle to battle. Turn Homeward, Hannalee (1984) and its sequel, Be Ever Hopeful, Hannalee (1988), look at life during and after the war from a Southern girl’s perspective. Charlie Skedaddle (1987), which won the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, chronicles the change of heart of a twelve-year-old Yankee drummer boy who could not wait to get into battle but deserts his regiment after the first enemy encounter. Jayhawker (1991) tells of a Kansas boy who carries on his abolitionist father’s work.

Patricia Beatty truly puts the “story” in “history.” Her books are always cited in major textbooks on children’s literature as worthy examples of historical fiction, and they have won various awards. While her main characters are protected from the stark realism that is a growing trend in children’s books, Beatty left a legacy of books that inform young people about the past in an entertaining manner.