Butcher's Crossing Summary
John Williams

Butcher's Crossing Overview

Butcher’s Crossing, a work of historical fiction by John Williams, is set in 1873 and focuses on a young man named Will Andrews who has left Harvard College in order to explore the untamed American frontier. He arrives in the town of Butcher’s Crossing, Kansas, where he meets a buffalo hunter called Miller. Andrews joins Miller and two other men on a hunting expedition to Colorado, where Andrews not only witnesses Miller’s monomaniacal obsession with slaughtering buffalo, but also witnesses the harsh realities of the natural world. The novel explores themes of nature, obsession, civilization, desire, and personal transformation.