Wild West History Association Roundup set for July 15–19

 

Billy the Kid shot by Pat Garrett. I love the dogs in this.

(ABQJ) ...At this year’s Wild West History Association Roundup, from Wednesday, July 15, through Sunday, July 19, in Albuquerque, attendees will be able to listen to historians like Gardner discuss topics ranging from Wyatt Earp to how the West has shaped the United States’ identity. Continued

Baxter Black, Who Elevated Cowboy Poetry to Folk Art, Dies at 77

(NYTimes) Baxter Black, the country’s best-known cowboy poet, whose witty, big-hearted verse about cowpokes, feed lots and wide-open vistas elevated the tradition of Western doggerel to something of a folk art, died on June 10 at his home, a ranch outside Benson, Ariz. He was 77. Continued

David Thomas: Zeroing in on Southern New Mexico History

(Wild West) ... After launching a software company and writing computer programming manuals, he went on to author well-received books about New Mexico history, including several about the notorious outlaw Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War. Thomas, 75, recently spoke with Wild West about his writing and some of the more interesting figures from the Mesilla Valley. Continued

Hot Springs, America’s Forgotten Capital of Vice

Al Capone was one of the many gangsters who enjoyed vacationing in Hot Springs.

(NYTimes) ... Hot Springs, as David Hill writes in “The Vapors,” a history of the town during its sin-soaked heyday, let a lot of people be — with varying degrees of vengeance. Among them were workaday gamblers and good-timers like Kelley, but also bookmakers, con artists, prostitutes, shills, crooked auctioneers, outlandishly corrupt politicians and boldface-named mobsters. From about 1870 until 1967, when the reformist governor Winthrop Rockefeller shut off the vice spigot, the town’s chief municipal expression was a wink. The mayors winked. The cops winked. The preachers winked, or at least averted their gaze. Winking was how a Bible Belt town of 28,000 (circa 1960) attracted upward of five million visitors per year and why, as Hill writes, on any given Saturday night, there may have been “no more exhilarating place to be in the entire country.” Continued

INSIDE THE WILD HUNT FOR FORREST FENN'S HIDDEN TREASURE

"Absconding with the Treasure" by N. C. Wyeth

(CrimeReads) ... “How did we not think to check the weather?” I asked, mostly rhetorically. “It’s the desert. I thought the weather was always the same here,” Beep said, looking perplexed. A pasty Canadian, he was shivering in the passenger seat in a gray fantasy sports T-shirt and black gym shorts, fully unprepared for the deluge. At least he was wearing a boonie hat he’d purchased because it seemed like good hunting gear, its floppy brim partially hiding his people-pleaser eyes. Just as well. I figured he’d be looking at me with disappointment for my embarrassing lack of preparation. Quite the auspicious start to our careers as treasure hunters. Continued

Book Review: The Stolen Pinkerton Reports of the Colonel Albert J. Fountain Murder Investigation

(Wild West) This is Vol. 6 in the Mesilla Valley History Series, editor David Thomas having written the first five volumes. The murder of Albert Jennings Fountain on Feb. 1, 1896, caused even more shock and outrage than might be expected in New Mexico Territory, as killed alongside the prominent attorney was his 8-year-old son, Henry. The double murder was never solved, despite an investigation by Doña Ana County Sheriff Pat Garrett, the man who’d killed Billy the Kid, and Pinkerton National Detective Agency operatives John Conklin Fraser and William C. Sayers. Continued

Larry McMurtry, Novelist of the American West, Dies at 84

(NYTimes) Larry McMurtry, a prolific novelist and screenwriter who demythologized the American West with his unromantic depictions of life on the 19th-century frontier and in contemporary small-town Texas, died on Thursday at home in Archer City, Texas. He was 84. 

 The cause was congestive heart failure, said Diana Ossana, his friend and writing partner. 

 Over more than five decades, Mr. McMurtry wrote more than 30 novels and many books of essays, memoir and history. He also wrote more than 30 screenplays, including the one for “Brokeback Mountain” (written with Ms. Ossana, based on a short story by Annie Proulx), for which he won an Academy Award in 2006. But he found his greatest commercial and critical success with “Lonesome Dove,” a sweeping 843-page novel about two retired Texas Rangers who drive a herd of stolen cattle from the Rio Grande to Montana in the 1870s. Continued

Also: The Essential Larry McMurtry

Charles Portis

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette True Grit Illustration (John Deering)

(Wikipedia) Charles McColl Portis (December 28, 1933 – February 17, 2020) was an American author best known for his novels Norwood (1966) and the classic Western True Grit (1968), both adapted as films. The latter also inspired a film sequel and a made-for-TV movie sequel. A newer film adaptation of True Grit was released in 2010. Portis has been described as "one of the most inventively comic writers of western fiction." Continued

A Visit from Saint Nicholas in the Ernest Hemingway Manner by James Thurber

It was the night before Christmas. The house was very quiet. No creatures were stirring in the house. There weren't even any mice stirring. The stockings had been hung carefully by the chimney. The children hoped that Saint Nicholas would come and fill them. The children were in their beds. Their beds were in the room next to ours. Mamma and I were in our beds. Mamma wore a kerchief. I had my cap on. I could hear the children moving. We didn't move. We wanted the children to think we were asleep. 

"Father," the children said. There was no answer. He's there, all right, they thought. "Father," they said, and banged on their beds. "What do you want?" I asked. "We have visions of sugarplums," the children said. "Go to sleep," said mamma. "We can't sleep," said the children. They stopped talking, but I could hear them moving. They made sounds. "Can you sleep?" asked the children. "No," I said. "You ought to sleep." "I know. I ought to sleep." "Can we have some sugarplums?" "You can't have any sugarplums," said mamma. "We just asked you." There was a long silence. I could hear the children moving again. "Is Saint Nicholas asleep?" asked the children. "No," mamma said. "Be quiet." "What the hell would he be asleep tonight for?" I asked. "He might be," the children said. "He isn't," I said. "Let's try to sleep," said mamma. The house became quiet once more. I could hear the rustling noises the children made when they moved in their beds. 

Out on the lawn a clatter arose. I got out of bed and went to the window. I opened the shutters; then I threw up the sash. The moon shone on the snow. The moon gave the lustre of mid-day to objects in the snow. There was a miniature sleigh in the snow, and eight tiny reindeer. A little man was driving them. He was lively and quick. He whistled and shouted at the reindeer and called them by their names. Their names were Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, and Blitzen. He told them to dash away to the top of the porch, and then he told them to dash away to the top of the wall. They did. The sleigh was full of toys. "Who is it?" mamma asked. "Some guy," I said. "A little guy." I pulled my head in out of the window and listened. I heard the reindeer on the roof. I could hear their hoofs pawing and prancing on the roof. "Shut the window," said mamma. I stood still and listened. "What do you hear?" "Reindeer," I said. I shut the window and walked about. It was cold. Mamma sat up in the bed and looked at me. "How would they get on the roof?" mamma asked. "They fly." "Get into bed. You'll catch cold." Mamma lay down in bed. I didn't get into bed. I kept walking around. "What do you mean, they fly?" asked mamma. "Just fly is all." Mamma turned away toward the wall. She didn't say anything. 

I went out into the room where the chimney was. The little man came down the chimney and stepped into the room. He was dressed all in fur. His clothes were covered with ashes and soot from the chimney. On his back was a pack like a peddler's pack. There were toys in it. His cheeks and nose were red and he had dimples. His eyes twinkled. His mouth was little, like a bow, and his beard was very white. Between his teeth was a stumpy pipe. The smoke from the pipe encircled his head in a wreath. He laughed and his belly shook. It shook like a bowl of red jelly. I laughed. He winked his eye, then he gave a twist to his head. He didn't say anything. He turned to the chimney and filled the stockings and turned away from the chimney. Laying his finger aside his nose, he gave a nod. Then he went up the chimney. I went to the chimney and looked up. I saw him get into his sleigh. He whistled at his team and the team flew away. The team flew as lightly as thistledown. The driver called out, "Merry Christmas and good night." 

I went back to bed. "What was it?" asked mamma. "Saint Nicholas?" She smiled. "Yeah," I said. She sighed and turned in the bed. "I saw him," I said. "Sure." "I did see him." "Sure you saw him." She turned farther toward the wall. "Father," said the children. "There you go," mamma said. "You and your flying reindeer." "Go to sleep," I said. "Can we see Saint Nicholas when he comes?" the children asked. "You got to be asleep," I said. "You got to be asleep when he comes. You can't see him unless you're unconscious." "Father knows," mamma said. I pulled the covers over my mouth. It was warm under the covers. As I went to sleep I wondered if mamma was right.

The Library is Open

The good folks at the Clovis Carver Public Library would like me to remind you that the library is open. All the usual items and services are available and the hours are the same: Mon - Thurs 9:00 to 8:00 and Fri - Sat 9:00 to 5:00. Anyone living within a hundred mile radius of the library can get a free library card, and just like anywhere else these days, you gotta wear a mask.

Letter from Back East: Roanoke’s ‘Lost Colony’ Was Never Lost, New Book Says

Virginia Dare, the first Anglo child born in North America,
sustained herself on nuts, berries, and product endorsements.
(Virginia Dare Winery)

(NYTimes) In 1590, the would-be governor of a colony meant to be one of England’s first outposts in North America discovered that more than 100 settlers weren’t on the small island where he left them.
More than 400 years later, the question of what happened to those settlers, who landed on Roanoke Island, off the coast of modern North Carolina, has grown into a piece of American mythology, inspiring plays, novels, documentaries and a tourism industry in the Outer Banks. Continued

Crazy Fourth: How Jack Johnson Kept His Heavyweight Title and Put Las Vegas, New Mexico, on the Map

Jack Johnson

(Amazon) In 1912 boxing was as popular a spectator sport in the United States as baseball, if not more so. It was also rife with corruption and surrounded by gambling, drinking, and prostitution, so much so that many cities and states passed laws to control it. But not in New Mexico. It was the perfect venue for one of the biggest, loudest, most rambunctious heavyweight championship bouts ever seen. In Crazy Fourth Toby Smith tells the story of how the African American boxer Jack Johnson--the bombastic and larger-than-life reigning world heavyweight champion--met Jim Flynn on the Fourth of July in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Continued

Rudolfo Anaya R.I.P.

(Wikipedia) ... Rudolfo Anaya was raised in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. His father, Martín Anaya, was a vaquero from a family of cattle workers and sheepherders. His mother, Rafaelita (Mares), was from a family composed of farmers from Puerto De Luna in the Pecos Valley of New Mexico. Anaya grew up with two half-brothers, from his mother’s previous marriage, and four sisters. The beauty of the desert flatlands of New Mexico, referenced as the llano in Anaya's writings, had a profound influence on his early childhood. Continued

Dee Brown

(Wikipedia) Dorris Alexander "Dee" Brown (February 29, 1908 – December 12, 2002) was an American novelist, historian, and librarian. His most famous work, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970), details the history of American expansionism from the point of view of the Native Americans. Continued

Charles Portis, Elusive Author of ‘True Grit,’ Dies at 86

Portis is the one who isn't John Wayne (Encyclopedia of Arkansas)

(NYTimes) Charles Portis, the publicity-shy author of “True Grit” and a short list of other novels that drew a cult following and accolades as the work of possibly the nation’s best unknown writer, died on Monday at a hospice in Little Rock, Ark. He was 86. Continued

Latest Anaya offering defies genre

Grzelachowski's Store in Puerto de Luna, an old Billy the Kid haunt.

(Quay County Sun) If I had to assign a genre to Rudolfo Anaya’s latest book, “Chupacabra Meets Billy The Kid,” I’d say it’s of the Western / science fiction / fantasy / Chicano literature / historical fiction genre, as if there’s such a thing.
Maybe “unique” is a better description, because that’s certainly the way this outside-the-box tale reads.
And to the contrary, I’d describe its Guadalupe and Lincoln county settings as realistically descriptive … well, except for the wormhole along the Pecos. Continued

Max Brand

(Wikipedia) Frederick Schiller Faust (May 29, 1892 – May 12, 1944) was an American author known primarily for his thoughtful and literary Westerns under the pen name Max Brand.
Faust (as Max Brand) also created the popular fictional character of young medical intern Dr. James Kildare in a series of pulp fiction stories.
Faust's Kildare character was subsequently featured over several decades in other media Continued

Ranch Romances: The Last of the Original Pulps

(pulpmags.org) … Ranch Romances, by far the most successful of the western romance pulps, enjoyed a 47-year run and over 860 issues published from September 1924 through November 1971.

The redoubtable Fanny Ellsworth -- who also handled the reigns of detective pulp icon Black Mask from 1936 to 1940 -- effectively edited Ranch Romances for half its existence, and three different publishers, from 1929 to 1953.

… one of my favorite editor's quotes from the era, which is Hersey's famous phrase: "There are only two kinds of women in the western pulpwoods -- your sister and nobody's sister."

"Your sister" became an endless line of independent, daring, impulsive yet invariably feminine western heroines with whom untold millions of modern female readers could identify while reading Ranch Romances. Continued

The Wild Bunch: Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary Film

 

(Santa Fe New Mexican) … The Wild Bunch, set in 1913, crafts a story of an American West in decline. There, a band of six outlaws and killers have outlived their time, and the ubiquitous signs of progress — automobiles and machine guns and modern hand grenades — are at odds with the way they understand their world and their place in it.
In this gritty masterpiece, the men, led by William Holden and Ernest Borgnine, look for one last score, but find themselves thrust into the Mexican Revolution and on the run. Continued

An Interview with author Robert Utley

Miles

(Wild West) Robert M. Utley, a former chief historian for the National Park Service, has been recording the history of the American frontier—particularly its military history—for decades, and he shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
He has written or edited more than 20 books, including Frontiersmen in Blue, Frontier Regulars and Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier. All three are essential references for anyone writing about the frontier Army.
And 2018 saw another command performance from Utley, namely The Commanders: Civil War Generals Who Shaped the American West. In it Utley profiles seven key commanders—Christopher C. Augur, George Crook, Oliver O. Howard, Nelson A. Miles, Edward O.C. Ord, John Pope and Alfred H. Terry—and provides his own informed analysis of their abilities. Continued