The Dallas Times Herald newsroom was abuzz that summer of 1985. Practically everyone had a copy of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove.
We knew or at least knew of McMurtry, the Archer City native often seen wearing his “Minor Regional Novelist” sweatshirt. Those of us longing for a career in fiction could only dream of being that kind of minor regional novelist. McMurtry’s Horseman, Pass By (1961), Leaving Cheyenne (1963), The Last Picture Show (1966) and Terms of Endearment (1975) had been adapted as movies, winning 10 Academy Awards with 16 other nominations. But in Lonesome Dove, McMurtry left behind his 20th-century West for an epic, 843-page cattle drive from South Texas to Montana.
Long novels of the West were not unheard of in the mid-1980s—such as James Michener’s Centennial (1974) and Lucia St. Clair Robson’s Ride the Wind (1982)—but the critical and commercial reaction to Lonesome Dove boggled the mind. Holding its own against Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October, John Irving’s The Cider House Rules and Louis L’Amour’s Jubal Sackett, Lonesome Dove sold almost 300,000 copies in hardcover and more than a million when it was released in paperback. In 1986, the novel won the Pulitzer Prize.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 2020-Ausgabe von True West.
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FIREARMS COLT WALKER 47
THE LEGENDARY HANDGUN THAT REALLY WON THE WEST
HERITAGE TRAVE
THE AMERICAN WEST IN ALL ITS GLORY OUR ANNUAL FAVORITES LIST CELEBRATES DESTINATIONS ACROSS THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.
Wild Turkey, and Not the Drinkin' Kind
The actual bird was a favorite of pioneers.
THE PASSION PROJECTS OF THE MODERN WESTERN
A YEAR OF UNDERRATED EXCELLENCE
WESTERN BOOKS THEN AND NOW
THE STATE OF WESTERN HISTORY AND FICTION PUBLISHING IN 2024 IS ONE OF GRIT AND DETERMINATION.
SAMUEL WALKER VALIANT WARRIOR
While a prisoner at the castle of Perote, Walker was put to work raising a flagpole. At the bottom of the hole, Walker placed a Yankee dime, vowing to someday come back and retrieve it, at the same time exacting revenge on his Mexican captors. In the summer of 1847, when Walker's mounted riflemen returned and routed Santa Anna's guerillas, the young captain kept his promise and got his dime back.
THE BATTLE OF CENTRALIA
ON September 27, 1864, Bloody Bill Anderson and about 80 men took over the small railroad village of Centralia, looting stores and discovering a barrel of whiskey that they hauled out into the street. Wild enough when sober, they soon were roaring drunk.
THE MAN WHO SHOOTS THE WEST
Jay Dusard is a living American photographer who has made Arizona his home for over 60 years, seeing it first in 1960 on a visit, moving here for good in 1963.
A TRUE WESTERNER INDEED PHIL SPANGENBERGER 1940-2024
Spangenberger had Nevada trained to bow by the legendary horse trainer, Glenn Randall, who trained Roy Rogers' Trigger, Gene Autry's Champion, Rex Allen's Koko and the Ben Hur chariot horses, among other great equines.
Where Did the Loot Go? - This is one of those find the money stories. And it's one that has attracted treasure hunters for more than 150 years.
Whatever happened to the $97,000 from the Reno Gang's last heist? Up to a dozen members of the Reno Gang stopped a Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis train at a watering station in southern Indiana. The outlaws had prior intelligence about its main load: express car safes held about $97,000 in government bonds and notes. In the process of the job, one of the crew was killed and two others hurt. The gang made a clean getaway with the loot.
