Shooting Back

Killer Kids

Oh, the troubled faces of these killer kids on the cover of the current issue of True West reflect the horror and madness of war.  You can tell those eyes saw and experienced too much. Fighting the brutal Civil War made these kids old beyond their years.

 

 

Like Bob  Boze Bell said in his excellent article “Killer Kids of the Civil War, robbing and killing was all that Frank and  Jesse James, and men of their ilk,  knew how to  do.

Over the next two decades the bloodshed spread from Kansas and Missouri to other parts of West like wildfire.  And the influence these men left is still felt today in the form of film and print.   Who can forget  William Quantrill, ” Bloody Bill” Anderson, Cole Younger, or Frank and Jesse James?

—Paul Hoylen (Mexico)

 

An Errant Slab

There is much to talk about in the September/October issue of True West. But I must start with what stings my hide, the endurance of printing errors. You quote the last verse of Badger Clark’s poem, A Roundup Lullaby from his book Sun and Saddle Leather.

“Always seein’ ‘wayoff dreams of silver-blue,

Always feelin’ thorns that s(l)ab and sting.”

This comes from the 1917 second edition that everyone sees. But you will find in the 1915 first edition the correct original line,

“…Always feelin’ thorns that stab and sting.”

And this makes sense. Later in Clark’s 1922 edition of Sun and Saddle Leather, the line is once again corrected to

“… stab and sting.”

Yet, the most often seen edition gets the airplay and the “slab” error persists, which while being annoying to me, must have been acutely so to ol’ Badger himself!

—Rex Rideout (Conifer, Colorado)

 

Liver Eating Johnson

I really enjoy your Mountain Man issues. Great info last year (Dec. 2023) about the “liver eater!” Henry Parke’s Top Ten Mountain Man movies was good too, but how could he have omitted “The Big Sky”? That is easily top 5 in my book.

—Joe Long (San Luis Obispo, California)

 

True West Audio Version

The patrons of the Library for the Blind & Print Disabled love the audio version of your magazine. Keep up the good work!

—Larry Smith (Jacksonville, Arkansas)

 

New Wave West?

Concerning your pages devoted to art, I’m a child of the sixties so my tastes are less conventional than other patrons of your magazine. I’d like to see pictures of New Wave Western Art, painters and sculptors and certainly more on Native American Art.

—Michael Cajero (Tucson, Arizona)

 

Photo ID

I am sending you a copy of a picture, below, that I came across. Maybe you can find out who this is? Thank you.

—Edward Mitchell (Greybull, Wyoming)

 

Praise for Phil

Nice story in the new True West by Spangenberger regarding five or six cartridges in a revolver, plus a tip to a Rosebud connection. He is the best.

—Paul Hedren (Omaha, Nebraska)