Part 4, Chapter 10 Summary and Analysis

"Cross the Blue Mountain" is another homage, a personal reminiscence of McCullough's friend, the overlooked American author Conrad Richter. They first meet in 1963, when McCullough visits Richter's home across the Blue Mountain in Pine Grove, PA, to research an article that never materializes. They become fast friends, despite the age difference in their ages. Richter is born in Pine Grove and at 15 begins working in the mines and other tough jobs before starting to write for the Johnstown Journal. He marries Harvena Achenbach and in 1928 takes her to New Mexico to cure her tuberculosis. There he cares for her and struggles to survive on his writing during the Depression, mostly for The Saturday Evening Post. His first novel, The Sea of Grass (1937) ends financial worries. Feeling like a late bloomer, Richter writes daily to make up for lost time...