Editing Cloudsplitter (section)

{{short description|1998 novel by Russell Banks}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name          = Cloudsplitter
| title_orig    = 
| translator    = 
| image         = Cloudsplitter.jpg
| caption       = First edition
| author        = [[Russell Banks]]
| illustrator   = 
| cover_artist  = Marc Cohen
| country       = United States
| language      = [[English-language|English]]
| series        = 
| genre         = Historical novel
| publisher     = [[Harper Flamingo]]
| release_date  = March 1998
| media_type    = Print (hard & paperback)
| pages         = 768 pp (first edition, hardcover)
| isbn          = 0-06-016860-9
| isbn_note     = (first edition, hardcover)
| dewey         = 813/.54 21
| congress      = PS3552.A49 C57 1998
| oclc          = 37024178
| preceded_by   = [[Rule of the Bone]]
| followed_by   = Invisible Stranger
}}

'''''Cloudsplitter''''' is a 1998 historical novel by [[Russell Banks]] relating the story of [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]].<ref>{{cite book | title=Cloudsplitter | last=Banks | first=Russell | author-link=Russell Banks | publisher=Harper Flamingo | location=New York | edition=1st | date=February 1998 | isbn=0-06-016860-9 }}</ref>

The novel is narrated as a retrospective by John Brown's son, [[Owen Brown (abolitionist, born 1824)|Owen Brown]], from his [[wiktionary:hermitage|hermitage]] in the [[San Gabriel Mountains]] of California. His reminiscences are triggered by the reception of an invitation from a Miss Mayo, assistant to [[Oswald Garrison Villard]], then researching his book ''John Brown: A Biography Fifty Years After'' (Boston, 1910).

The title of the book comes from a translation of the Iroquois word [[Tahawus]], the name of the mountain—English name [[Mount Marcy]]—just beyond the Brown family estate. It is the highest mountain in New York State.

Until his death on January 7, 2023, Banks had lived for years in [[Keene, New York]], near [[John Brown's Farm]] in [[North Elba, New York]].<ref>{{cite news
|title=Ode to a Martyr
|first=Corey
|last=Kingsbury
|newspaper=[[Lake Placid News]]
|date=May 7, 1999
|page=16
|via=[[NYS Historic Newspapers]]
|url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn86033359/1999-05-07/ed-1/seq-16/
|access-date=2021-08-14
|archive-date=2021-08-14
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814122057/https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn86033359/1999-05-07/ed-1/seq-16/
|url-status=dead
}}</ref>