The Headless Horseman

Both Cassisus Calhoun and Maurice Gerald would love to marry Louise Poindexter. Louise, however, is preoccupied by the murder of her brother, and marriage is the last thing on her mind. All signs suggest that the assassin of Henry Poindexter is none other than Maurice Gerald, and as if this was not enough for Louise to contend with, a horse with a headless rider is seen visiting the Poindexter plantations. ‘The Headless Horseman’ is a novel written by Mayne Reid, based upon south Texas folklore and Reid’s own adventures in the United States. Thomas Mayne Reid (1818 – 1883) was an Irish-American writer. He spent many years in the United States and fought in the American-Mexican war, an experience that inspired much of his work. Most of his novels focus upon American life, colonial policy, slave labour and the lives and treatment of American Indians. In fact, he is regarded as one of the first novelists to write about the ‘Wild West’, and his adventure novels are often described as akin to those written by Robert Louis Stevenson. Amongst his most famous novels are ‘The White Chief’ and ‘The Headless Horseman’, and the latter was adapted to screen in 1972.