Allen Barra: You wrote in your preface, “Custer battled American Indians ruthlessly, yet wrote that he would resist too were he one of them.” His...
The Human Custer
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Allen Barra
A Tombstone Soliloquy
The story of the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday and the events leading up to the street fight in Tombstone have inspired enough fiction and...
The Little Big Man Hoax?
In 1992, American Heritage magazine asked historians, artists and novelists to name their favorite American historical novel. The overwhelming...
The Imaginary Doc Holliday Revealed
Shirley Ayn Linder’s slim and concise Doc Holliday in Film and Literature is a refreshing and welcome addition to the voluminous but often dubious...
Roaring Twenties Cowboy Noir
If you’re looking for a place to jump in to Loren Estleman’s enormous output, his novel of Wyatt Earp’s vendetta, Bloody Season; or his tale of the...
Ode to the Cowboys
Former Cochise County ranch wife Joyce Aros was, she writes, “exposed for a time to some old-time cowboys.” From there she makes a leap of faith...
“Free as the Winds,” Red Cloud Soared Above the Rest
Bob Drury and Tom Clavin’s The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, an American Legend is a biography long overdue. “Red...
Texas Jack Rides Again
Peter Brand’s Wyatt Earp’s Vendetta Posse Rider: The Story of Texas Jack Vermillion is a model of clarity and concision. John Oberland Vermillion,...
Gunfighter in Gotham
Many deem Robert K. DeArment’s 1979 biography, Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend, as essential reading. DeArment’s Gunfighter in Gotham attempts...
Wyatt On the Set!
His story, said Bat Masterson, was the story of the West. For years Wyatt Earp was reluctant to tell it. But as some began to resurrect his...
Tributes to Kevin Jarre (1954-2011)
Kevin Jarre was capable of greatness. That was my first thought when I heard he had died in Santa Monica on April 3, 2011, at age 56. You can see...
What the Cowboy Life Taught Raoul Walsh
Note to aspiring filmmakers: If you're looking for a film school, give Raoul Walsh's curriculum a try. It's called Life. Before he was old enough to...