John Duncklee is one of a kind, a renaissance Westerner from hat to boots. Whether he’s working as a teacher, author, horse breeder or cattle...
Arguing with His Characters
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Western Books & Movies
Cassidy Gang Captured Again
Butch Cassidy’s well-known “Fort Worth Five” photograph, which led to the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang’s eventual breakup, was recaptured for the History...
What’s Missing from The Missing?
Has Hollywood forgotten that the 1903 Western The Great Train Robbery jump-started the movie industry? When the self-financed Open Range was...
A Pineapple-Coconut Pie Kind of Guy
Since third grade, Johnny Boggs has been making up stories. Of course for True West, he sticks to the facts. And as regular readers already know, he...
The Legend Continues
Look out Western fans. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are riding back into motion pictures. NBC—in association with Viacom and Once Upon A Time...
Western Treasure Hunter
Research is the reason I find historical novels a joy to write,” says Michelle Black. “I have loved research since my law school days. It’s like a...
Re-enactors Bring Realism to Movies
GODS AND GENERALS More than 7,500 re-enactors brought the Civil War to life in Gods and Generals, released on February 21, 2003. Director, producer...
No Substitute for a Romping Good Story
With his deep voice and lean hawklike look, Western novelist Matt Braun could be one of the Old West lawmen or cowboys that populate his novels....
John Wayne’s 10 Best Westerns
Stagecoach (1939)—John Wayne plays the Ringo Kid, who escapes from prison to...
Writing with Cold Feet
Writers of nonfiction spend countless hours researching, but few are as dedicated about it as historical novelist James Alexander Thom. Not only...
James Drury, Alias The Virginian
When Owen Wister published The Virginian in 1902, he created the quintessential fictional Western hero (more than 60 years before Clint Eastwood...
Black Humor
The real Baxter Black is as witty off stage as when performing. One phone conversation can prove it. But being a Western humorist isn’t only what he...