Sam Fuller made his first movie about a sullen loser, Robert Ford, instead of a two-fisted hero, a singing cowboy or an outlaw. Lucky for Fuller, I...
The First Films of Samuel Fuller
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Articles
The Curse of Idolatry
Jesse James stands on a frozen pond. Through the ice, he can see the carp swimming inches below the surface. He asks his friend if he ever...
Grass Valley, California
Located in the heart of California’s Gold Country, Grass Valley was once a small settlement of fortune hunters who arrived just after the Gold Rush...
Can’t Kick the Boot Addiction
Hello, my name’s Johnny (yes, Johnny; it’s on my birth certificate), and I’m an addict. Not booze, gambling or anything illegal. But it is a serious...
Dude Ranching at an Outlaw Haunt
I take a deep breath and stare at the glacier-capped Wind River Mountains. My quarter horse Hank has probably seen this view a hundred times, but he...
Letters From the Corrugated Castle
AGES 10-14: Fictionalized corres-pondences to and from a girl, Eldora, living in Gold Rush California from 1850-1852 provide the narrative of this...
What They Got Right
It is a rare day indeed when an author admits, “They were very faithful to my book.” Ron Hansen is one of those happy writers. Hansen tells us five...
There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea
AGES 4-8: Do you remember the old woman who swallowed a fly? Now imagine that a coyote in the Southwestern desert has a similar gastronomical...
Thunder Rose
AGES 4-8: Thunder Rose possesses special powers from the day she is born with thunder and lightning coursing through her veins. She is able to put...
Frog Brings Rain
AGES 5-8: Patricia Hruby Powell retells a folktale that she first read in Frances Newcomb’s Navajo Folktales. This lively tale was kept alive by...
The Wild West Pop-Up Book
AGES 5-15: Creating a book which accurately relates the history of “Going West” from Boone to the “Cattle Kingdom” of the 1880s would seem an...
Paint the Wind
AGES 7-10: After Maya’s parents are killed in an auto accident, she finds herself living with her very restrictive grandmother. The only memories of...