A Lesson in Authority from a Wooden-Legged Civil War Soldier

Anybody out there know who Cyrus Trask is? Anyone?

You won’t find out who Cyrus Trask is if you eyeball a list of country singers. No. You can only find out who Cyrus Trask is by reading John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden.

John Steinbeck describes Cyrus Trask as the father of Adam and Charles Trask. Cyrus is the patriarch. The family stud.

He’s a daunting man who lies “so convincingly about his military heroics during the Civil War that the government appoints him to a powerful position in the Army administration.”

But he was never in battle long enough to acquire any real-world …read more