Is there an American Old West infograph? If not, what are some quintessential western stories, literature, and reference books to read if I want to about the reality and revel in the myths?
Just grabbed a few of Charles Siringo's books, and I've had Lonesome Dove in my backlog forever.
Run, don't walk, to Portis. Some of the best damn dialogue ever. Leonard's Westerns are all ace and top-notch. And Lonesome Dove is a shaggy dog, but one that quickly makes its home at your footside once you're settled in. You're in for a few good weeks. Gushes aside, good introductions are these:
'All the Pretty Horses,' by Cormac MemeCarthy (asides from 'Blood,' his best prose. Filament that shimmers and weaves)
'3:10 to Yuma and Other Stories,' by Elmore Leonard (these are tight, wirey, and rambling)
'True Grit,' by Charles Portis (neither film does justice does his dialogue [and thats saying something with how good those Cohen brothers are])
'Warlock,' by Oakley Hall (about the OK Corral gunfight, and a Pynchon rec., for whatever that's worth to ya)
'The Last Gunfight,' by Jeff Guinn (perhaps the best non-fiction overview of that same Corral shootout)
Indeed, you'll have trouble finding a good Western novel that hasn't already been adapted to film three or five times. Don't let that cheapen a genre that is at home among words like "cheap," as well as "passionate," "bloody," "mortal," "mythic." If anything, and if ya haven't already, you may just be set for a whole 'nother adventure with Western films (even tv shows. "The Rockford Files" plays like a western serial set and garnished in seventies everything). Enjoy
>>7722892
Very good post. This guy knows his stuff, even though he lays on the stereotypical Western lingo and persona a bit thick.
>>7722919
I'm sorry, don't listen to me. I'm on mescaline. I've been spaced out all day.
Thanks for the recommendations. Is there a good book that just kind of goes over the whole era, however briefly? Like how Black Flags gives a brief overview of most of the golden age of sail as it relates to pirates (I especially loved the appendix that listed famous pirates' date of execution) or something more extensive like Shelby Foote's Civil War books? I'd like to have a good, solid framework of the actual facts.
It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own: A New History of the American West, by Richard White. Maybe the worst book cover ever, but, great as an overview
Railroaded by Richard White. A monumental business history that explains just how the American Transcontinentals snaked their way through the American West.
The Legacy of Conquest by Patricia Limerick. Trappers, traders, Indians, oilmen, cowboys, and miners were all part of a story driven by profit, loss, competition, and consolidation.
The Trampling Herd, by Paul I. Wellman. A fantastic overview of the history of the cattledrive
Frontier Violence: Another Look , W. Eugene Hollon, 1974
No Duty to Retreat: Violence and Values in American History and Society
By Richard Maxwell Brown
Guns, Murder, and Probability: How Can We Decide Which Figures to Trust?, Randolph Roth.
And just one final note, if you're doing this out of maybe growing desire to write yourself a nice western, just remember that metatextual element, that all of the "mythos" of the West came from those hoards of dimestore novels. That was what lit that fire up, so an overview on that if one exists, might become necessary to do something of substance (since anything of substance these days usually necessitates a bit of that "form is substance and vice versa" stuff)
>>7722946
np
I would recommend not to do mind-altering drugs, but it's your life.
Mary Doria Russell, the author probably best known for "The Sparrow" wrote a book about Doc Holliday titled (surprise!), "Doc".
>>7722245
Get S. Craig Zahler's Wraiths of the Broken Land and Congregation of Jackals for sheer savagery. He also made the movie Bone Tomahawk.
