The Wandering Hill
novel by Larry McMurtry
The Wandering Hill is a novel by Larry McMurtry published in 2003. It is the second, both in chronological and publishing order, of The Berrybender Narratives. Set in 1833, it recounts the Berrybenders' journey up the Yellowstone River into the Rocky Mountains.
The title refers to a sinister-looking movable hill in Native American legend. The hill is said to appear at scenes of great tragedy, and is meant to symbolize the ill-conceived and ominous choices the Berrybenders are beginning to make.
Reception
Publishers Weekly said "McMurtry tosses in famous hunters and mountain men like Hugh Glass, Kit Carson and Tom Fitzpatrick, plus a buffalo stampede, grizzly bears and an Indian ambush, but these are just props to support the soap-opera antics of the Berrybender clan. A few folks manage to get themselves killed, but there are plenty of annoying Englishmen left to people the next two volumes."
Kirkus wrote "Big issues masquerading as light fun.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Wandering Hill” is novel by Larry McMurtry. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Wandering, Hill and novel, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “novel by Larry McMurtry” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7773418. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2003 and 1833.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Wandering Hill”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Wandering Hill primary sources, The Wandering Hill archive and Wandering research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Wandering Hill”?
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- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Wandering Hill” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.