Laurie's Wild West

The Fascinating Story Behind Big Little Books: An Interview with Lawrence Lowery

2009-07-11T16:02:00.000-07:00

Many readers of this blog have read my earlier posts on Big Little Books, due to some of my grandfather's pulp Western stories being reprinted in them. A lot of you are already familiar with these little gems and some of you may have come across them in antique stores or flea markets. If you've ever wondered about these little books and how they came into existence, you're in for a treat.

Below is an interview with Lawrence Lowery, who is considered an expert on the history and collection of Big Little Books and other books similar to them. He is also the head of the Big Little Book Club and editor of of the Big Little Times, a bi-monthly newsletter. He also maintains www.biglittlebooks.com, which receives about 8,000 hits a month.

Larry is a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley and is an award-winning math and science teacher. He was also a Principal Investigator for several math and science programs at the Lawrence Hall of Science at Berkeley. He remains active, making presentations around the world on math and science education. He is also the author of several children's books. A complete biography on Larry can be found at www.biglittlebooks.com.

Lowery is the author of Lowery's The Collector's Guide to Big Little Books and Similar Books, which was originally published in 1981. Larry tells me that he has written and published a new book on Big Little Books, called The Golden Age of Big Little Books, 1932-1938. There's more on his new book at the end of the interview.

To give you a very quick primer: Big Little Books are the name given to a certain kind of book that was first published by the Whitman Publishing Company in 1932 and later copied by other companies. They got their name because, although there were numerous variations in outside dimensions and in number of pages, most were 3 5/8" x 4 1/2" x 1 1/2" in size and 432 pages in length. They originally sold for 10 cents. One of the features of these books that people most remember is the interior format: each left page of text was paired with an illustration on the right side page. Although they were most popular during the first decade after their first appearance, they continued to be issued on and off for several more decades. Their Golden Age, however, is considered to be the first six years of their existence.

These books were wildly popular and were quickly put to use to cover any and every comic book hero, radio personality, pulp story and pulp hero, movie star, cartoon character, and true-life legends such as Kit Carson and Buffalo Bill. From Dick Tracy to Buck Rogers, from Tom Mix to Shirley Temple: if you were in the public eye at all in the 1930s, chances are you were featured in one. Many children learned to read during the Great Depression with the aid of Big Little Books.

Without further ado, here is my interview with Larry Lowery:

1. Do we know what was the inspiration behind the first Big Little Books and what made Whitman decide to start the line?

When Western Publishing Company acquired the Whitman Publishing Company due to a printing payment default, a creative man at Whitman, Sam Lowe, stayed after the takeover. Under the new ownership, he enabled Western/Whitman to acquire rights to reproduce comic strips in other formats. When he saw 4” by 4” scraps of paper being wasted after trims of some other books, he got the idea that such scraps could be gathered together to make small books containing comic strip story lines. He wanted the book to look bulky, but remain small so that it could be held in the hand of a young consumer. He had the Whitman Art Department use hard-board material for the front and back covers which were connected with a paper spine. The interior was filled with the waste squares. Black and white drawings and key line text were added to complete three prototypes of 160 pages each. When Lowe was about to depart for New York to sell his concept to five-and-ten-cent stores, his friend Jim Lyle looked at one of the prototypes and said, “You should call it a ‘Big Little Book.’”

2. Were they immediately popular and did other publishers immediately start their own lines?

The first BLB, The Adventures of Dick Tracy, was released just before the Christmas shopping season in 1932. It has a print run of 250,000 copies. Virtually all were sold before Christmas. So the next two books, Little Orphan Annie and Mickey Mouse hit the market place in February of 1933 and sales skyrocketed. Whitman published 24 more titles that year with some printings running to a million copies per title. Other companies looked at the success and in 1934 some entered the field: Saalfield (Little Big Books); Goldsmith (Radio Star Series); World Syndicate (Highlights of History Series); Engel-van Wiseman (Five Star Library). More joined in, in later years.

3. I see where many movie stars like Shirley Temple, Tom Mix and the like had Big Little Books.

Along with the comic strip licensed agreements, Sam Lowe negotiated similar agreements for radio programs, movies, and real life characters (usually movie stars). Western characters predominated – they were on radio and in movies, so Whitman published several of their movies using movie stills. Whitman also had permission to use their names for stories written by freelance writers. Rights to produce Shirley Temple items were owned by Saalfield, the only significant real person owned by the company.

4. Can you tell us a little about how these books were produced? How did the stories come down for assignment, how long did it take, how did the illustrations come about, and did the writer and artist collaborate with each other?

Freelance writers wrote most of the Whitman BLBs. When given strip illustrations, the in-house artists worked independently from the writers – their job was to remove “word balloons” and fill in the created space with appropriate artwork. Writers then tried to write a narrative that matched each illustration. I had the pleasure to meet with several of the authors. One of them, Gaylord DuBois one of the most prolific freelance writers of the time, said, “I was glad to get BLB work – one or two payments a month for payment of thirty-five dollars for each.” For each BLB he was sent a thick handful of clippings from newspaper comic strips. His task was to write a 320 or 432-page book, selecting some continuity of pictures and writing a narrative that matched each one.

Professional authors were paid $250.00 in advance of royalties, which were 1/4¢ per book. At that rate, Author Rachel (Margaret) Sutton (author of the Judy Bolton books) eventually received a little over $2,000.00 for Kay Darcy and the Mystery Hideout, which she wrote under the pen name, Irene Ray.

When books were written for the BLB format and not from strip materials, an illustrator worked with the author.

5. I was surprised to read that she had received that much in royalties. That was a heck of a lot of money in those days. Was this typical?

I know only of payments to authors of Whitman titles. Saalfield might have had a different pay scale for freelance writers.

Whitman also paid professional writers differently than freelance writers (my definition here is that professional writers were people like Margaret Sutton who was famous in her own right).

6. I found it really interesting that many of the writers and illustrators were never given credit, but it sounds like a lot of effort has been made to track down these writers? How did you find these people? Were members of the Big Little club active in finding these people?

When I began researching the history of the BLBs, I found no one who had done anything about them except make lists of titles. Much of the Whitman archives disappeared in the mid-70s, so there was not a lot to work with. Jalaine Tenneson, librarian at Whitman, was very helpful and what little was there gave me a start.

I tracked down Gaylord DuBois and he was very gracious in sharing his memories. By accident I found Rachel Sutton living in Berkeley near the university where I was a professor. She, too, was gracious with her knowledge. Along the way I came across old timers who worked at Whitman in the 30s and 40s. I tried to meet every one of them.

7. How did you get involved in collecting these? Tell us about your collection too.

I was born the year the first BLB was published, so my childhood before the advent of the great hero comics was spent growing up with BLBs. After college when I was drafted into the Korean War, my mother threw out my comics, but kept the 42 BLBs that I had. They were stored in an attic. In 1979 my wife and I attended a book fare in Los Angeles where a woman had a table with 36 BLBs spread out face up. Looking over them brought back memories, however, no title on the table matched the ones I remembered as a kid. I asked the woman how many were published, but she knew nothing interesting about them. I bought them all for $4.00 each, took them home, found mine in the attic, and began to seriously search for others. Being a University Professor, I knew how to research and get around in the world of books. Within a year, I attained all of them, and wrote a book of their history including black and white photos of each cover.

As a hobby, I’ve continued to research details about the books and to continue collecting peripheral/related items. I now have over 1,600 BLBs and related items in my collection.

8. Which ones are considered the most valuable, and why?

There are just a small number of rare titles that command a lot of money. They are oddities and hard to describe. There is a Mickey Mouse the Mail Pilot with a first Mickey Mouse cover on it and the words “Mail Pilot” stamped on the cover. This was probably a prototype and did not have a press run. Three are known to exist. I have a Walt Disney Silly Symphonies translated into Portuguese and signed by Walt – a 1941 item that was part of his ambassadorship to South America at the request of President Roosevelt in an attempt to persuade South America from joining the side of the Germans before the advent of WWII. There is only one of these.

Among collectible items that can be found with perseverance and patience, the first Dick Tracy is prized and expensive. It has just one small printing compared to all the subsequent BLBs. The Laughing Dragon of Oz is expensive. It was written L. Frank Baum’s son, Frank Joslyn Baum. The Oz publishers, Reilly & Lee, sued Whitman and the son because they owned the rights to Oz materials. Whitman stopped presses in the print run, destroyed what they had, and promised to print no more Oz books. No one knows how many copies reached the marketplace. The book is scarce and popular because it is an Oz book.

Popular strip characters always command good prices – any Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, or Mickey Mouse titles are available, but costly – especially in nice shape. They were usually well read and tattered from usage.

9. Tell us about the club. You said that at one point the club had roughly 1,000 members. Are most of the members those who read these when they were children?

My friend John Stallknecht started the Big Little Book Club in 1981. In that year he had 24 members and published a bimonthly newsletter. He gave up after that year, and I took over running the Club and producing the newsletter. We are now finishing up our 28th year of continuous publication of The Big Little Times.

At its peak, the Club had 1,336 members. I’d estimate that at least 95% of them experienced the books during they childhood. Sadly, the Club is losing about 10 members a month for the past 2 years – and in following up on why, nearly everyone no longer in the Club passed away. We have an elderly membership.

10. There are several online chat groups for collectors and enthusiasts of the pulp fiction magazines. Are there any that are dedicated to the Big Little Books and similar books?

I know of no online chat groups. But I get a lot of mail and inquiries through my website (biglittlebooks.com). It gets over 8,000 hits a month, and I answer every correspondence that I receive.

11. I'm sure that your original Lowery's Guide to the Big Little Book has been a valuable asset to many collectors’ libraries. It is in mine. You have a new book coming out - please tell us about it.

My first book was to put into print the history of the creation and production of these attractive little books. It serves as a reference book for researchers and serious collectors. My new book contains 28 more years of knowledge about the books. The Golden Age of Big Little Books is self-published and spans in great detail the true Big Little Books (1932 to mid-1938 when the books became Better Little Books). All the 470 9” x 12” pages are in full color, each book is shown full size, and a great deal of detail is given for each book. All the competing company books are included, and a complete history of the Western/Whitman relationship is described up to the demise of both the companies in the 1990s. I am proud to say that the book received an award as one of the finest self-published books in 2007.

12. And one final question: which Big Little Book is your favorite?

I have two favorites, each for a different reason.

The first one I ever saw and owned was Mickey Mouse in the Blaggard Castle. Floyd Gottfredson drew and wrote most of the Mickey daily strips and the Blaggard Castle story line is one of his best. That book hooked me on BLBs.

The other book is Nancy and Sluggo. In the year during which I tried to identify all the titles and acquire each to verify them, the last book to complete the collection was Nancy’s. It is not too hard to find today and not very expensive –but it was the toughest one for me to find and holds a special place in my heart because it completed my research quest.

You can order copies of The Golden Age of Big Little Books, 1932-1938, by emailing Larry at his email address (larry@biglittlebooks.com). Larry asks that people make sure their email doesn't look like SPAM, because his email server will discard anything that looks like SPAM. Or people can write to him at Larry Lowery, P.O. Box 1242, Danville, CA 94526. There is also more information at www.biglittlebooks.com.

Questions about Big Little Books can be directed to Larry at his email address or his mailing address.

And one last thing! You can also look forward to finding Big Little Books at Pulp Fest, which will be held at the end of this month. The committee has told me that although pulp magazines will be the main focus of the convention, Big Little Books and their counterparts can also be seen at some dealers' tables.

Pulp Fest Coming Up Soon

2009-07-10T07:40:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note before I scamper off.

A reminder to everyone that Pulp Fest is coming up very quickly at the end of this month: July 31 - August 2, to be exact, at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. I'll be there and I can't wait to see old friends and meet some new ones.

There will be a lot of interesting speakers and seminars, including this one that was just posted by the committee yesterday:

"Ed Hulse, the editor of Blood 'n' Thunder, is busy assembling a panel of
pulp collectors and dealers who will weigh in on the current state of the
hobby. What's happening with pulp prices? Is demand exceeding supply? What
are the hot titles? How has the surge in reprints affected the marketplace?
Which magazines will future collectors be chasing? These and other questions
will be addressed in this fast-paced discussion that will be held on Friday,
July 31, beginning at 7:05 PM."

That alone sounds worth the price of admission (which is only $30 before the convention and $35 at the door - that's for all three days) , let alone the thousands of pulps that will be for sale and the chance to hang out with the hundreds of participants, dealers and authors. Oh, and Otto Penzler, editor of the Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps, will be there too, on Saturday night.

The hotel is still offering the convention rate of $79 per night, but only up until July 18.

Go to the Pulp Fest web site for all the details, including a list of dealers and also who will be speaking.

Hope to see some of you there.

Get Your Excerpts Now: Wild Bunch Wednesdays Starts Tomorrow

2009-07-07T15:20:00.000-07:00

All Western fans should take note of Wild Bunch Wednesdays, a group effort spearheaded by several Black Horse Western authors, that starts TOMORROW, July 8. Every Wednesday for the next four week, the Wild Bunch members will be posting excerpts from their books on their blogs. Each week will follow a specific theme - tomorrow's theme is 'the hero.'
The Wild Bunch members are Joanne Walpole, Gary Dobbs, Ray Foster, Ian Parnham and Howard Hopkins. Readers of my blog will remember Joanne as the writer behind the name Terry James and the Western Long Shadows, and Gary as Jack Martin, writer of The Tarnished Star.

Go to Joanne's blog for more information and for links to the other authors' Web sites.

An Antitode for Boredom: A Buffalo Roundup

2009-07-05T07:38:00.000-07:00

For those of you yearning to go on a real life roundup, here's an article in the L.A. Times today about an annual buffalo roundup on Antelope Island - an island in the Great Salt Lake - that takes place from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2.

The buffalo on the island are descendants of a dozen buffalo imported in the late 19th century. Now numbering around 600, the herd are shepherded (this is where you come in) into pens for annual medical tests and vaccinations. Oh, and according to the article, some are culled from the herd and sold at auction. Whether or not they are sold for food isn't mentioned. So you PETA-members might want to sit this one out.

A good many people show up to camp on the island and then volunteer to ride the herd to the pens. The article says that last year, 150 riders rode a herd of 250 buffalo. Buffalo who are nothing like the docile cattle you see in the Western movies. These are 2000-lb onery sons-of-you-know-what. Combine them with a bunch of people who might be novice riders riding rental horses, that sounds like a pretty crazy party to me. But fun, too! Woo-hoo!

Here's a blurb from the article with the basics:

"Each year, the Utah State Parks allows volunteers to help round up more than 600 bison on Antelope Island, the largest island in the Great Salt Lake. There is no limit this year to the number of riders allowed. Registration information will be available at www.stateparks.utah.gov beginning in mid-August.

Dates: The Bison Roundup will be held Oct. 31 to Nov. 2.

Cost: $25 per person to register for the roundup; $9 for park entrance. $13 to camp overnight on Antelope Island.

Horse rental: R&G Horse & Wagon Outfitter at Fielding Garr Ranch rents horses for the Bison Roundup at $250 a day, which also includes a guide and lunch. For reservations, call (801) 726-9514 or (888) 878-8002."

I've done quit a bit of trail riding in my life, much of it with a group called the Tri-Valley Trailblazers in Northern California. (This photo is of me and the group on a High Sierra Trail Ride in 2001.) I love to trail ride, but because I'm used to faster riding, I get a little bored on longer rides. This round-up sounds like my kind of antitode for boredom.

The $250 a day for the horse sounds a little steep to me; if I had my way, I'd probably trailer in my own pony (if I had one). But then, you never know how a horse is going to react when they see and smell a strange animal for the first time.

Hmm....the article doesn't mention the location of the closest hospital...but it does sound like ambulances are at the ready. How comforting!

Book Review: Long Shadows by Terry James

2009-07-04T11:33:00.000-07:00

Long Shadows
by Terry James
Robert Hale; London. 2009

Readers of my blog know that I'm a big fan of Black Horse Westerns, an imprint of the Robert Hale publishing house in London. They offer page-turning, action-packed stories and are written by a group of talented writers. Now, Long Shadows, written by Terry James (a pseudonym of Joanne Walpole) is another reason for U.S. readers to start reading these little gems. Long Shadows is one of the freshest and most compelling Westerns I have read in a long time.

Our heroine, Ros West, returns home with a problem. Rather, more than one problem. She is suffering from memory loss due to a traumatic accident, and cannot seem to figure out why people want her dead. She has a protector in the name of Jake Rudd, a previous lover who still loves Ros. Unfortunately, Ros doesn't remember Jake and isn't about to re-live old times with him. Jake, in the meantime, has his hands full with local businessman Emmett Swain, who wants what he feels is deserving to him, which includes the West land.

The story simmers with tension, partly because of James' skill with point of view, but the unfolding mystery is what keeps the story moving so quickly and powerfully. The sexual tension between Jake and Ros don't hurt either. I loved James' willingness to stretch the boundaries of the traditional Western by including romance and mystery in a way that make the story new and fun and unforgettable.

Long Shadows can be purchased either through amazon.com, amazon.com.uk, and the book depository.

For more information on Joanne Walpole, go to her blog. You can also read an excerpt of Long Shadows there.

Movie Review: Public Enemies

2009-07-03T20:26:00.000-07:00

I ventured out today and saw Public Enemies, the new film directed by Michael Mann and starring Johnny Depp. When I first heard about this movie via a billboard with Depp's face prominently advertised as the star who would be portraying John Dillinger, I winced. Bad idea, I thought. Depp was just too good looking to play someone as inherently sleazy as John Dillinger. Yes, Dillinger was handsome, but in a rugged, dangerous kind of way. Hollywood tends to glorify and sanitize famous criminals, especially those from the 1930s, and putting Depp in that role just seemed to magnify that even more.

Dillinger was a folk hero during the early 1930s because of his occupation of robbing banks, banks being a popular target of public resentment during the Great Depression. Depp plays this public Dillinger very well, and with Mann's sticking to historical details, Depp does all the things that made Dillinger famous and admired by the public: the chummy pose with the prosecutor after his capture, the adacious escape from the county jail with a fake gun, the taking of bank money but leaving the poor man's money on the counter. Depp's Dillinger is a slick fashionista with beautifully cut coats and fedoras and an eye for the best restaurants. His goons even look like they belong on Wall Street.

Mann is at his best here. He is a stickler for details and it pays off. He also creates a fine balance between the hunter and the hunted: Christian Bale's Melvin Purvis is a able but flawed G-man who is understandly afraid of his bully boss J Edgar Hoover. The shoot out scenes are, from what I remember, pretty close to the truth (except for the beginning scene which I understand never happened).

I have to confess that I loved Depp playing Dillinger. Like in most of Depp's movies, I could not get enough of him. I just wish that Mann had stepped away from the action of the movie long enough to give us more of Depp-playing-Dillinger on screen and add more backstory: Dillinger's weaknesses, his vulnerabilities, what made him the sociopath he was. Alas, that does not happen.

If we had seen more of Dillinger and got to see how he really operated, then maybe we would have been able to better remember that this Dillinger guy was nothing but a murderous, amoral sleazebag who just happened to be handsome, smart, and with a lot of self confidence.

Some facts are left out, such as the fact that he underwent plastic surgery near the end of his life in an attempt to change his looks to avoid capture. Some other scenes left me thinking, "Oh, come on." But for the most part I thought those abberations were minor and weren't enough for me, a purist when it comes to history, to walk out.

I liked the movie. It's beautifully shot and magnificently acted. Go see it for the sake of seeing a good, stylish film directed by one of the best. I like movies that stay closer to the truth even more, but I'll take this one and maybe even see it again.

Gene Autry Celebrated in Large and Small Towns Alike

2009-06-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

Gene Autry's legend lives on, and not just at his museum in Los Angeles. Several festivals and celebrations are held throughout the country during the year. In one town, Gene Autry, Oklahoma, there is a festival in September. Autry bought a ranch there in 1941, when the town was named Berwyn, and the town promptly changed its name to honor its newest and most famous resident. They kept the name even after Autry moved out after World War II broke out and sold the ranch.

Here's a link to a great article in the L.A. Times today about these festivals. Worth looking into.

My Town Monday - San Pedro

2009-06-28T18:23:00.000-07:00

San Pedro is a community at the end of the 110 Freeway in Los Angeles. It is technically part of the City of Los Angeles, but don't ever tell anyone in town that you live in Los Angeles instead of San Pedro. If you do, it's almost a guarantee that you will have a fight on your hands.
It's been six months now since I moved out of San Pedro. And for the first time since I left, I think I can put down into words some of my thoughts on living there. My life there full of turmoil and worry, unemployment and an unsellable house, but also new friendships made, a great romance that came and went, the publication of my grandfather's book and my writings, and some other pretty amazing times. I'm still now trying to sort it all out. My time in San Pedro was a case study in extremes, not unlike the town itself.
It's a tough town, built on the backs of fishermen and longshoremen, many of whom were Italians, Greeks, Slavs and Croatians who settled during the early part of the 20th century. Now, the area east of Gaffey Street is run down, full of houses that have been reduced to crack houses. There are some exquisite Victorians in that area, but you'd never catch me living in one of those. People wander around east of Gaffey Street that you dare not ask for directions. When I took some of these photos, it was an early morning and there was barely a person around, but I took them with my heart in my throat. I had heard too many stories.

Yet, I have never, ever, lived in such a friendly town as San Pedro, where everyone talks to everyone else. I've always said that when you meet a stranger on the street in San Pedro and say hello, you will know that person's life story before you exchange good-byes. When I first starting looking for a house to buy in San Pedro, I was struck by how few houses were available. My friend told me that this was because when people move to San Pedro, they never leave. He was right. Many families in San Pedro are now in the third generation growing up there.

When you drive into San Pedro, you are greeted by an ugly concrete bridge with the words "Welcome to San Pedro" painted in large yellow block type. You turn left and you're on Gaffey Street, full of fast food chain restaurants and motels and closed up storefronts. Keep driving. You continue down Gaffey Street and approach MacArthur Park, you hit a crest in the road and there, in unfathomable beauty, will be the Pacific Ocean, and Catalina a mere 26 miles away. If you keep driving, you will literally drive straight into the ocean. Get out and walk around Point Fermin Park on the cliffs, with the lighthouse that has been used in countless movies and television shows. Don't get too close to the cliffs, because people jump and fall off, on purpose and accidentally, on a regular basis.

Getting back to not saying you live in Los Angeles: the animosity towards the City of Angels bureaucracy goes back decades for various reasons. One reason is the Port of Los Angeles, built in the harbor in the early 20th century, that provides the bread and butter for many of the families in town. Yet that comes with a price - air pollution from the diesel trucks accounts for one of the highest particulate matter concentrations in the country. And because the Port and the City of Los Angeles are so closely tied together, there is pretty much no hope that the little town could ever declare its independence and become its own incorporated town like the towns nearby like Torrance and Hawthorne and Gardena, who have police that actually respond to calls and clean streets and libraries with books.

There are more halfway houses and rehabilitations centers in the San Pedro area than in any other place in the city. That stems from a long honored tradition of the city "dumping" its problems on the little town by the sea. At the same time, there is still a culture of drinking so there are plenty of cocktail lounges for those who want to slip out of their rehab rooms in the middle of the night for a quick one. I always thought that my main worry about my safety in town wasn't the high number of gang members - it was getting hit by a drunk driver while driving through town late at night. One night a few years ago in San Pedro, a policeman was investigating a serious accident - one caused by a drunk driver - when another drunk driver plowed into the patrol car.

I don't miss the gang bangers living in the duplex two doors down. I don't miss hearing an automatic weapon being fired at 5 in the morning at the corner - the first and last time I hope I ever have to get on the floor in my own house to avoid being shot. I don't miss not being able to park my car out front of my house, because the city in its infinite wisdom allowed apartment buildings to be built all over the hill without thinking of the parking ramifications. (But then, you don't want to park in front of my house anyway, because twice drunk drivers have careened down the hill and sideswiped other cars - always leaving the scene of course.) I don't miss having to drive all the way to Torrance to eat at a decent restaurant or shop for clothes because there are no such places in Pedro. (Oh, and by the way, it's pronounced Peedro, not Paydro. Just some advice to keep you safe when you visit.)

But I do miss my neighbors and feeling like I truly live in a small town. I miss the local businesses like the Sandwich Saloon, and the Waffle and Omelet Place where people lined up on Sunday mornings, and the Croatian bakery and the Italian deli. I miss talking to my neighbor Jerry who owns the book store downtown (the oldest book store in Los Angeles, by the way, 100 years old and still going). I miss my neighbors and worry about my good friend Timna who lives across the street and can't work due to disabilities. I miss the cool ocean breezes and hearing the cruise ships horns blowing on Sunday afternoons, telling passengers that it's time to embark. I could smell the ocean from my house and if you walked out into the middle of the street, you can see the ocean - full of cranes in the Port, but still. The Ocean.

I live in a much more sedate area now north of Long Beach called Lakewood, a planned community built in the 1950s for those who worked for the aerospace industry plants nearby. Trees are planted outside of each house and there are parks everywhere. There are so many restaurants and shopping centers that it will take me 5 years to get inside all of them. But I didn't move here out of choice. It was because real estate in San Pedro, like the rest of the city of L.A., is still unrealistically high and rental prices are the same.

Will I ever move back? That's a good question. There are days when I don't think I could handle the noise, the density, the overall craziness. But then I pass someone in my new town on the street and they walk by, head down, without saying good morning, and a little part of me misses San Pedro so much it hurts.

This post of part of the My Town Monday meme. For more information, go to Travis Erwin's blog. Travis is looking for someone to take over the management of the My Town Monday tradition. Please contact him through his blog it if you are interested.

New Info on the Blood N Thunder Mag

2009-06-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

I know that everyone is still reeling from the death of two icons today, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, but I wanted to post this information because, judging from the stats I've been getting today on my earlier post, there seems to be a lot of interest in the Blood N Thunder magazine. Here's some new info.

Ed Hulse, editor of Blood N Thunder , sent the following email this afternoon about a ongoing sale on eBay of the current issue. He also gives us a glimpse into what's going to be in the next issue.

"Thanks so much, Laurie, for your kind words about BnT. For those of you who still haven't tried BLOOD 'N' THUNDER, I'm running on eBay a three-day special -- buy the zine now and get free shipping.(Domestic buyers only, unfortunately.) The sale ends Sunday afternoon.

Here's the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270415519806

The new BnT (Summer issue) is being laid out shortly in the hope that I'll have finished copies back in time for debut at PulpFest next month. It'll include a lengthy, comprehensive survey of THE POPULAR MAGAZINE by yours truly, an overview of pulp-like French fiction of the late 19th and early 20th century, a Will Murray article on Arthur J. Burks, a "Tricks of the Trade" writer's-mag reprint focusing on A. A. Wyn's TEN DETECTIVE ACES, a lengthy article on the 1928 movie serial TARZAN THE MIGHTY and the behind-the-scenes wrangling that predated its production, a report on the recent Windy City con, pulp reviews by Duane Spurlock and Mark Trost, and more.

It's another profusely illustrated, 100-page-plus package of goodies, perfect bound between laminated color covers. Although there are innumerable pulp reprints and collections of newly written stories in the classic pulp style, I think Caz and I are the only two fans regularly publishing article-driven fanzines that cater to pulp fans. I could be wrong about that, though; if so, apologies to the other publishers."

And just one more reminder from me - and this will be the last post today - that Pulp Fest is coming up very soon - July 31 - August 2 in Columbus Ohio. The convention is being held at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Convention Center and the hotel is offering a special rate of $79 per night for those attending Pulp Fest. There will be three days jammed with the top pulp collections in the country selling inventory, and in addition some very interesting programming is on the schedule. Otto Penzler, editor of the beautiful and much praised Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps, will be interviewed on Saturday night by none other than Ed Hulse.

Farrah Fawcett 1947-2009

2009-06-25T13:41:00.001-07:00

I never was that impressed with Farrah when she was a Charlie's Angel. In fact, I was always slightly irritated with her because her poster was in my ex-husband's room when we were first dating. From then on, she represented an ideal that I could never aspire to.

Then I saw Extremities and later on television The Burning Bed. And I began to admire her - not for her acting skill, but her bravery in taking on risk-taking roles and her determination to push the stereotypes out of the way. I was more than irritated when I read her obit in the New York Times today that kept mentioning that, as far as they were concerned, she was unsuccessful in overcoming the sex symbol stereotype. Excuse me. The aforesaid movies, along with her other roles, like in The Apostle, helped earn her a reputation as a serious and talented actress.

The documentary that she made in the last years of her life was another testimony of her character. I could barely watch the scene in which she sat with her doctors as they told her there was no hope. She managed to hold it together, but the devastation in the room was more than evident.

She took risks. She never gave up. And for that I will always view her as a success.

The New Look of Blood N Thunder Magazine

2009-06-25T05:05:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I received my copy of Blood 'N' Thunder magazine, and I was stunned by its new look. Whereas before the quarterly was running 36 pages and then most recently at 28 pages, it now comes in at 106. You read that right. It's also got a new cover design. It also runs three times a year now instead of four. And it's cover price has almost doubled: from $6 to $11.95. But, believe me, the increase in price is worth it.

For those of you not familiar with Blood 'N' Thunder, this is a magazine devoted to the pulp fiction magazine with articles for those interested in either collecting the mags or scholarly research or both (I have a feeling most of us readers into both categories). I think it's safe to say that it's one of the very few periodicals out there devoted to the pulps on a regular basis. The quality and regular appearance of fanzines can be spotty and many suffer from lack of vision and a dedicated staff to keep them going. Not this one.

Editor Ed Hulse explains in the Editorial Comments that the new and expanded Blood 'N' Thunder was a long time coming. The magazine had not been economicaly viable in the past few years, and the page count had even been reduced from 36 to 32 and then to 28 pages. Then, the current recession almost pushed the magazine over a cliff and Hulse admits that the staff was close to letting go of their grip and letting it fall. But instead, they decided instead to change strategies. The old printer - who had always been cooperative but couldn't help the magazine save any more costs - was let go and the mag switched to a Print On Demand printer. The number of issues was cut down to three a year instead of four, and the number of pages increased. Brilliant. Like I've always said, economic recessions can be the perfect time for change and rejuvination.

And, as usual, the articles don't fail to interest and educate me. I have a hard time picking up any magazine nowadays and actually reading it due to my lack of time - I'd rather spend my time reading books. But when you've got articles on the Gangster Pulps of the Prohibition Era, a comprehensive history on a Walt Coburn story that ended up as the B-movie Western The Return of Wild Bill, a Tricks of the Trade regular column that reprints some of the old how-to-write pulps articles for pulp writers, and a portfolio of Norman Saunders, on of the great pulp cover artists, written by his son David...well, you get the idea.

Thumbs up to Chris Kalb, Art Director, for the design and professional appearance of the mag. Not that it didn't look good before, but it looks great now.

Hulse is also the author of the Blood N Thunder Guide to Collecting Pulps, which I wrote about several months ago. Another must if you're interested in collecting pulps or just expanding your knowledge.

If you're interested in picking up an issue of Blood N Thunder for $11.95, or an annual subscription that runs $30, contact Ed Hulse at bnteditor@yahoo.com. They accept PayPal, by the way. There is a shipping charge if you order individual issues of $2.50 for domestic addresses (probably a bit more for international).

I'll be seeing Ed at Pulp Fest at the end of next month (July 31-Aug 2 in Columbus, Ohio), and I look forward to meeting him and getting the summer issue of Blood N Thunder.

Book Review: The Tarnished Star

2009-06-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

The Tarnished Star, by Jack Martin. Robert Hale, London. 2009.

Black Horse Westerns are not well known in the United States, but it’s strictly a geographic problem. These small, lean hardbacks are the house imprint of Hale Publishing of London and are mostly available only in the United Kingdom. Eventually they are seen in the U.S., but the distribution is still very limited. This is a shame, because the BHW gang, of which I am affiliated with through their online group, are a fine group of very talented writers.

Which brings me to the book The Tarnished Star, written by Gary Dobbs under the pseudonym Jack Martin. Dobbs is no stranger to fiction writing, having already published several short stories in online forums such as Beat to a Pulp and print periodicals , which has earned him a reputation as a fine writer.

The plot is a simple, classic Western one: Sherriff Cole Masters is at odds with a rancher and his worthless son who is accused of murdering a prostitute. Masters is pushed into circumstances in which he ends up not the lawman in pursuit, but the criminal being pursued.

The Tarnished Star will not disappoint those who want a quick read that is lean, suspenseful and is true to the standard Western conventions. All of these qualities total up to a solid Western that is appealing and suitable for anyone’s taste.

But that doesn’t mean that it’s a run-of-the-mill yarn for one important reason: Dobbs’ skill as a writer. For those who like to read the works of new and talented writers, this is the book for you.

Dobbs’ experience as a noir thriller writer is of benefit in The Tarnished Star. He writing has almost a minimalist quality, resulting in a style that is spare and yet nuanced. Dobbs wisely keeps his storyline within a time frame of only a few days and fills his scenes with finely detailed scenes, rich characters and believable dialogue – the latter being one of the hardest skills for a writer of Westerns to master. The result is a book that you can get lost in with scenes filled with strong tension. One feels as if time has stopped, and I could not help but think of the movie High Noon throughout the story.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a Western that I couldn’t put down – come to think of it, I think the last time was when reading another Black Horse Western, Winter’s War by Matthew Mayo, and a few short stories like A Man Called Horse. The Tarnished Star is now on that list.

I could have used more physical description of the characters, but it’s a minor complaint when considering the entire book and how well it came out. One can only hope that more Cole Masters stories will appear in the BHW line and, more importantly, that Dobbs keeps writing.

The Tarnished Star can be purchased through Amazon.com, Amazon.com.uk, and The Book Depository. (The latter does not charge for shipping to any destination in the world.)

For more information on Gary Dobbs, you can go to his blog, The Tainted Archive.

Memoir Writing: Creative License Doesn't Always Apply

2009-06-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there, and to those of you who are lucky enough to still have your dads around.

More to follow later today, including Sunday in the Garden, Week Two, and also a review of The Tarnished Star, just released and currently one of the best-selling Westerns in the United Kingdom.

In the meantime, there is a very interesting article in the L.A. Times this morning on memoir writing and the perilous nature of writing about other people in our lives without their knowledge, and the ethics of this practice and whether it is invading their privacy.

When I was writing the prologue and epilogue for Pulp Writer, I struggled with this quite a bit. As it was, because I love my family and want to remain friends with them, I chose to be very careful as to what I disclosed about them and their histories. We are talking about other human beings here, who will have to live with what is said about them in print for the rest of their lives. In the end, I included only those facts that they knew were going in and with their permission. It made for a bland memoir in some respects. But now, at the end of the day, I can sleep at night.

But, with that said, I'm always tempted to pen certain passages for my next memoir about certain very interesting friends and neighbors that would make them delightful additions to any memoir. I have one girlfriend who has certain characteristics and idiosyncracies that would make her an unforgettable addition to anybody's book. Would I betray her by writing about her in a book? No way. But if she gave me permission? You bet.

I went to a book signing a few months ago at which a writer was presenting his memoir of buying a fixer-upper home in Tuscany (no, not that book) and his trials and tribulations with his neighbors, a relationship that eventually became more cordial. But I got the impression that he patronizes them in his book. In addition, he presented a video as part of this presentation in which he shows clips of his neighbors. I was shocked to learn that not only did he not ask their permission to include them in the video, he did not let them know of their role in his book. "We did not print the book in Italian," he said with a smirk. I left the presentation shortly after that. It just hit me wrong.

If that means that I'll never write any tell-alls, I guess I'll be okay with that.
Maybe I'll have to switch to novels.

Larry Lowery, Big Little Book Expert, to be Interviewed

2009-06-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

Any of you who have been involved in the collection and/or study of Big Little Books, Little Big Books, and similar books from the 1930s have probably heard of Larry Lowery. Lowery is the author of Lowery's The Collector's Guide to Big Little Books and Similar Books, which was originally published in 1981. I was delighted to receive an email from Larry about a week ago saying that he had found the web site for Pulp Writer and also this companion blog. (At least five of my grandfather's stories were re-published as Little Big Books, published by the Saalfield Company, in the 1930s, including Desert Justice, a Sonny Tabor story, shown here).

Larry tells me that he has written and published a new book on Big Little Books, called The Golden Age of Big Little Books, 1932-1938. He says it is a massive book, 470 pages, with each cover reproduced in full cover and actual size.

Larry is considered an expert, if not the foremost scholar and collector of the Big Little Books. He is also the founder of the Big Little Book Club, which had around 1,300 members up until about a few years ago. The Club is made up of many people who enjoyed reading the books when they were children; sadly, many of these folks are leaving us, so club membership has been declining somewhat. Larry is also editor of of the Big Little Times, a bi-monthly newsletter.

And if that wasn't enough, Larry is also a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and is an award-winning math and science teacher. He was also a Principal Investigator for several math and science programs at the Lawrence Hall of Science at Berkeley. He remains active, making presentations around the world on math and science education.

I'm very happy that Larry has agreed to be interviewed for this blog. Once he returns from being out of the country, I will be pouncing on him with a list of questions.

More information about Larry and Big Little Books, and the Big Little Book Club can be found at biglittlebooks.com.

The Old Corral - a Great B-Westerns Web Site

2009-06-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

I just discovered this great site, The Old Corral, that is dedicated to the heroes of the old B-Westerns from the period 1929-1954. The introduction says "No A Westerns, no TV Westerns, and no spaghetti Westerns." As of May, 2009, this site has been live for 11 years. The actual URL is www.b-westerns.com - easy to remember.

This site has a long list of heroes - like Johnny Mack Brown here - in the sidebar. All you need to do is click on each name and you will get a biography and photos. It also has information on singers and musician groups, heroines and leading ladies, villains, Indians, stunt men and even a link to "The Republic Stable of Bad Guys." There are also links to many of the old stars official Web sites.

Boy, you just can't go wrong with this site. What a treasure chest. Hats off to Chuck Anderson, "The Old Corral Webmaster."

Sunday in the Secret Garden, Week One

2009-06-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

I have subjected many of you to the torture of not knowing when I will go off on one of my self-indulgent rants and post photos from my garden. But isn't "self-indulgent rant" part of the definition of a blog anyway? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It can be both. And even when it is a self-indulgent rant, sometimes that can be of service to some readers who find a commonality with your subject.

With that said, I'm going to try to limit my rants to once a week on Sundays. Other days of the week will be dedicated to things that might be of interest to many of my readers, such as book reviews, news, interviews, and so forth.

So those of you who need a garden, dog, and the occasional cat fix, or if you yearn for your own secret garden, you can rest assured that you can find it here Sunday mornings along with your Sunday paper and Meet the Press.

The Tarnished Star - Available Now through Amazon US

2009-06-13T09:17:00.001-07:00

Anybody who keeps up with the Western genre lately knows that a much-anticipated novel, The Tarnished Star by Jack Martin, aka Gary Dobbs at The Tainted Archive, has been set for release the end of this month. Well, I guess Black Horse Westerns couldn't wait to get it's fastest-selling publication ever out on the market, because it's out now. It's now available in the U.S. on Amazon.com. I ordered mine several months ago through The Book Depository, a U.K. outfit (which doesn't charge for shipping from the UK) and they notified me a few days ago that it was on its way.

The first review of The Tarnished Star can be found here.

And those of you who are looking for good ways to market your book, check out The Tainted Archive and the many ways that Gary has found to publicize The Tarnished Star. It's paid off, because it was one of the best-selling Westerns in the U.K. even before publication, a few months back.

Good luck to Gary and many thanks to someone who has tirelessly championed the Western genre for the benefit of all of us.

A Little Bit of Four Play

2009-06-12T13:05:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'll get it when I can.
I've been duly memed by Gary Dobbs at the Tainted Archive and as I love to talk about myself, I'm more than willing to respond.

Four movies you can see over and over

Dr. Strangelove
Howard's End
Bull Durham
Glen Gary Glen Ross

Four places you have lived

North Hollywood (now Valley Village)
Hawaii
Massachusetts
England

Four favorite TV shows

The Office
The Sopranos
Hotel Inspector
30 Rock

Four places you have been on vacation

England
Indonesia
Costa Rica
Drive across the United States (and back)

Four favorite foods

Pizza
Sushi
John's Charbroiled Burgers, Livermore, CA
Ice cream

Four web sites you visit daily

Type Like the Wind
Medieval Woman
The Tainted Archive
Education of a Pulp Writer

Four places you would rather be

England
Disneyland
Bisbee, Arizona
Dodger Stadium (Really. It's beautiful.)

Four things you hope to do before you die

Write another book
Move to England
Gallop a horse through Monument Valley
Go to a World Series Game

Four novels you wish you were reading for the first time

Lonesome Dove
Lolita
The Boys of Summer
Born Standing Up (Steve Martin)

Tag four people you wish to respond

Type Like the Wind
Lamour Project
Lisamarie's Mom
Howard Hopkins

Review: The Rough Guide to Westerns by Paul Simpson

2009-06-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

The Rough Guide to Westerns
Paul Simpson
Rough Guides (Penguin), 2006

You have to say this about Paul Simpson: he's brave. Or, as they used to say, "he ain't no yellow-bellied coward." In The Rough Guide to Westerns, Simpson has compiled a short, pretty much "rough" manual and history of the Western movie. This one is a little different, though, from ones that have come before.

To back-track a little, the Rough Guides is a Penguin imprint that is well known for its travel books. They have sinced branched out with books on music, popular culture, and reference guides. They have a whole line of Rough Guides to movies, including horror, gangster, sci-fi, chick flicks, american independent film (as opposed to French? Italian?) and comedy. So that's where the Rough Guide to the Westerns rides in. It's an odd-shape, square and smaller than your typical hardback or even softcover. So it's easy to carry and pack in your saddle bag if you so wish.

Simpson warns us in the Introduction: "This book exists for one simple reason: to increase your enjoyment of the Western." Meaning that this book is not meant to give you a comprehensive, basic, or even rudimentary course in the Western film. This book is for those who are itching to look at the Western through a different set of eyes.

Simpson starts with the basic chapters that begin most Western film guides: "Once Upon a Time in the West: The Origins." For this topic, he lists the following movies with a short descriptive critique: The Robin Hood of El Dorado (1936), Wagon Master 1950), Arrowhead (1953), Escape from Fort Bravo (1953) and Apache (1954).

I have to admit that I was so taken aback by these choices picked to conclude a section on "The Origin of the Western" that I had to go back and read the Introduction not once, but twice, to figure out Simpson's methodology in picking these movies. And I couldn't find an explanation.

The same goes for the second chapter, "The Trail: The History of the Western," in which he discusses each decade, ending the section with a handful of movies to watch that he thinks are good represenations for that decade. For the 1950s, in his narrative, he mentions Broken Arrow, The Gunfighter, High Noon, Shane, the seven Mann/Stewart Westerns, Man Without a Star and The Searchers. Then he lists the following movies as ones to watch to obtain a more "nuanced" view of the 1950s: Calamity Jane, Hondo, The Man From Laramie, Run of the Arrow, The Big Country, Sheriff of Fractured Jaw, Terror in a Texas Town, Ride Lonesome, and The Wonderful Country.

For the 1960s, which we all know was the decade in which the Western blinked, he lists: The Misfits (which I will not watch again due to the horrifying filmage at the end of capturing Mustangs), One-Eyed Jacks, Major Dundee, Rio Conchos, Hombre, The Professionals, 100 Rifles, and The Stranger's Gundown.

So you can see the land mines that Simpson has laid for himself with this book. Or rather, has laid for us. If you can appreciate his sense of humor and his irreverent tone, you may enjoy this book and even learn something. Or you can throw the book against the wall. It's up to you.

Simpson does justice to odd-balls subjects with sidebars. One is "The Worst Westerns" (now, remember, y'all, this is his book). I was suprised to see only 5 listed. None of which I have seen, I'm thankful to say, except I'm intrigued by the title "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter" and may have to find that one on Netflix. He also discusses "Joe McCarthy's Westerns", "Acid Westerns," and Blaxploitation.

Simpson then lists his 50 classic Westerns. I will not be baited into telling you which ones they are, because I don't want a bloodbath to ensue in my Comments section. We all know how these lists come down. I will tell you that I thought his picks were suprisingly unsurprising, considering the rest of the book.

Some interesting chapters in the back are "The Stock Company: Western Archetypes," and "Iconic Locations," and "Westerns Around the World." He deals with many subjects that aren't standard cinema-book fare, and with the respect they deserve, such as the Sand Creek Massacre. For someone like me, who was eternally traumatized by that anti-government 1970 bloodbath called Soldier Blue, I appreciated the coverage. It doesn't come along in every book about Western movies.

So it's not boring. It's fun, sometimes aggravating as hell, and certainly is a conversation starter. Next time you're looking for a good Saturday night barroom brawl, tuck this book in your back pocket.

Goulash

2009-06-06T14:51:00.000-07:00

Have been sick for over a week now which is why the blog has been quiet of late. Some people can forge on when they are under the weather, but I'm one of those that falls apart and can't really do anything constructive until I'm feeling better physically. This has been a horrific chest cold resulting in my inability to talk at all for a few days now. I'm sure my dogs are happy about this, because now whenever they start baying at people walking by, I am forced to throw pillows at them instead of yelling at them to be quiet.

A couple of notes:
I'll be speaking again for the California Writer's Club, Long Beach branch, on Tuesday, August 4. I'll be speaking about my grandfather's memoir Pulp Writer, how I found his memoir, and the history of pulp fiction. This is good timing, because it will be right after I return from Pulp Fest, and should be full of interesting stories and anecdotes about interesting pulp authors.

I'm very proud to announce that I will be interviewing Ann Parker, author of the Silver Rush Mystery series, and the interview will be on my blog sometime within the next month. The Silver Rush Mystery series is centered around Inez Stannert, a fiesty, brilliant woman who runs a saloon in the town of Leadville, Colorado in the Silver Rush period of the 1880s. The first two books in the series, Silver Lies and Iron Ties, have been published to great acclaim. The third book, Leaden Skies, will be out in July.

And finally, I was very happy to learn last week that one of my photos, the apricot rose on the right side of my blog, was accepted by a microstock photography site, BigStockPhoto, to be sold on their site. This is my first time working with a microstock site and I really don't know my way around yet, but from what I know they can be discerning in deciding what they will accept. Which made me feel pretty good, even when I'm sick.

Book Review: Frontier Medicine by David Dary

2009-06-03T19:50:00.000-07:00

Frontier Medicine
From the Atlantic to the Pacific: 1492-1942
David Dary
Knopf; 2008

Frontier Medicine is a fascinating overview of the progression of the practice of medicine over the almost-500 years since Christopher Columbus landed on the continent. He begins with Indian medicine and the white man’s early settlement in the colonies. He then moves forward chronologically in his chapters that discuss several topics, such as fur traders and trappers, the Lewis and Merriweather expedition, the Civil War, and then the rush of westward migration afterwards. He also covers the concept of “Going West for Your Health,” midwifery, patent medicines, and even quacks.

That’s a lot of territory to cover, so to speak. And I have to admit that I began this book with some trepidation, knowing how overviews can end up superficially addressing their subjects and leaving the reader feeling like she has been rushed towards the exit door. Dary even admits in his forward that covering such a wide expanse of such a huge topic wasn’t his original idea; he began the project intending to only cover medicine in the American West during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But I am fascinated with the topic, which I guess is hereditary: my grandfather’s novel Doc Dillahay was centered around a young man training to be a doctor in frontier Arizona.

But I was not disappointed and in fact I could not put Frontier Medicine down. Yes it is an overview, and those of you who write Western novels and want extensive information on frontier treatment methods will probably only get your curiosity partly satisfied. But you could do a lot worse.

Dary writes an outstanding narrative that gives you ample detail on the treatments used and also on how little physicians had in the form of supplies, training and knowledge. Add inclement weather, hostile Indians and the occasional rattlesnake and you see how much anyone who attempted to practice medicine on the frontier had to deal with. Many couldn’t handle it and quit and went back to the East Coast.

The concept of a full-time medical doctor - one who strictly and exclusively dedicated their work to helping and saving the sick – is a relatively new concept. Up until the end of the nineteenth century, doctors were scattered about, most of them making a living in other fields including doctoring. Anyone who practiced medicine was pretty much anyone who was called upon to help another person. As a result, the inter-dependence between the Native Americans and the various groups of emigrants when it came to treating each other is striking, but not all that surprising.

Dary writes matter-of-factly, almost perfunctorily, and he occasionally covers the careers, lives and deaths of a litany of various physicians and medical pioneers, sometimes so much that you think you’re reading the County Records. But it’s a small price to pay for such a good book. Besides, you can get a lot of ideas if you’re looking for interesting characters for your next novel. There is also a Glossary of “Old Medical Terms and Slang” and an impressive bibliography.

Dary ends the book with a discussion of his grandfather, Dr. Gilbert Dary, and his work as a general practitioner in a small town in Kansas at the turn of the century. This endeared me to Dary, as my great-grandfather followed an almost identical path. Dr. Dary ended up practicing in Hartford, Kansas after 1919 until his death in 1938. My great-grandfather, Dr. John H. Powers, practiced in Little River and then practiced at a hospital in McPherson until he died in 1933. They may have known each other. Dary’s narrative on his grandfather isn’t self-indulgent in any way; rather, it’s a good example of what turn of the century doctors had to cope with on the cusp of both a new era in America and in medicine.

Dary has already written several books on the history of the West: Cowboy Culture, The Santa Fe Trail, The Oregon Trail, Red Blood and Black Ink, among others. When I picked up this book at the Autry Museum (one of my favoite haunts when researching for Pulp Writer) a few weeks ago, I noticed another one of his books on the shelf: Entrepreneurs of the Old West. I chose this book, but now I’m kicking myself for not buying the Entrepreneur book as well. Oh well, I guess that means I'll just have to go back up to the Autry again - soon.

Support Wild West Monday 3

2009-06-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

Writers of the Western genre know that the Western is alive and well. Yet the major book "superstores" like Borders and Barnes and Noble continually fail to stock anything on their Western shelves except the bare bones: series by Louis L'Amour for example. Today is Wild West Monday 3, in which supporters of the Western genre show their outrage over the lack of Westerns in stores by contacting their local stores and asking why don't they carry them. Go to The Tainted Archive for more information on this worthy effort and to sign a petition.

The following is a letter I just fired off to Borders:

Dear Sir or Madam:

I recently went into a local Borders store and was extremely distressed by the lack of selection in your Westerns section. For a company that claims to have more than 190,000 titles to choose from, why is it that only five shelves are devoted to this genre, with the majority of titles by Louis L'Amour? Surely you must know that a large amount of classic Westerns were published pre-L'Amour - yet I cannot find them. In addition, there are a huge amount of current titles, such as those printed by the Black Horse Westerns imprint of Robert Hale Publishing that would add more depth to your inventory and give your readers more choices. These are written by a number of talented writers and are enormously popular.

If Westerns are not selling in your stores overall, it is not because of a lack of interest. Current films and television series, such as Deadwood, prove that there is an intense interest in stories set in the West. Perhaps Westerns are not selling in your stores because there aren't enough variety to choose from.

I will not be purchasing anything in any of your stores until Borders increases its Western inventory. In addition, I will be posting the text of this email on my blog for others to read.

Laurie Powers

Frances Hodgson Burnett

2009-05-31T10:22:00.000-07:00

Sick today. After having lunch yesterday with friends at the Scuba Show in Long Beach (I was a scuba instructor in a past life), I spent a hellish hour in traffic, realizing that I had a fever and just wanting to get home so I could collapse. Spent the rest of the day in chills and wandering around the house half-delirious. Thankfully the fever broke last night, but now have a sore throat, which can only promise a cold in the next few days. So much for the end of my vacation.

I spent a couple of minutes this morning in the Secret Garden. Some colors are so vibrant that the color cannot be transferred onto an image.
Other things are starting to get overgrown, which is fine with me. I love the overgrown, wildness of a cottage garden. Taking photos and watching Annie relaxed in the grass and Xena hunting for bees, I completely forgot about my sore throat.

I started to do some minor research on Frances Hodgson Burnett, who wrote the book The Secret Garden in 1911. She was a prolific writer before she wrote her most famous work (she also wrote Little Lord Fauntleroy), and lived on an estate when she wrote The Secret Garden. But she also experienced her share of hardships and tragedies. After her father died when she was still a child, her family was forced to live in squalor in Manchester and later in Knoxville, TN. When she was eighteen, her mother died, leaving Frances to support her other siblings. Wisely, she turned to writing to make a living. Later, she divorced her first husband, and her son died in 1890 from consumption. Later, she would marry her business manager, but that marriage only lasted two years. I don't have all the details yet, but it makes me wonder how that all played into her writing her most famous book of all. I'm sufficiently intrigued, and I've ordered a copy of one biography to read more.

In the meantime, I'm reading Frontier Medicine by David Dary and hope that these next couple of days will provide me with the forced confinement I need to finish it and write a review.

Review: Cowboy Lingo by Ramon F Adams

2009-05-24T18:28:00.000-07:00

Cowboy Lingo
Ramon F. Adams
Houghton Mifflin, 1936, 2000

Cowboy Lingo, which is an introduction into the vocabulary and culture of the cowboy, is one of those little gems that every lover and writer of the West should have on their bookshelf. First published in 1936, it was republished in 2000. This newest version has a stand up introduction by Elmer Kelton, who introduces us also to the fascinating world of its author, Ramon Adams.

Cowboy Lingo is divided up into themes. Adams covers all of the topics that may touch a cowboy's life at one point or another. The chapter on The Cowboy and his Duties covers what a cowboy would normally be responsible for while working on a ranch. He then discusses his clothes, his saddle and other riding equipment, ropes, guns, brands, nicknames, and so forth.

Being a horsewoman, I had a really hard time reading the passages on the various training and restraint instruments that were used on cattle and horses, such as various spurs, quirts and severe bits. But I know that if you're a student of the West, you just can't avoid these topics. Adams discusses them matter of factly and does point out in some cases that cowboys disapproved of such equipment due to their cruelty.

I am glad I discovered Cowboy Lingo. The book just gets more interesting the more you read. But I think that I am even more thankful that it has introduced me to the world and many other writings of Ramon Adams.

Adams, who was born in 1889, originally trained to be a musician and went so far as to become head of the violin department of the University of Arkansas. Then his life changed in the late 1920s when he broke his arm and wrist while cranking a model T Ford - a common mishap in those days. Adams was faced with not being able to do the one thing he had loved and trained for his entire life. In 1969 Adams recalled his fondness for music: "I loved the music Business. I hated to leave it, it got so that every time I went to a movie after that, it brought tears to my eyes because I had to get out of the Business. So I just quit going."

Adams and his wife eventually opened a candy store in Dallas in 1929, a business that would eventually become very successful, selling candy wholesale to retailers such as Neiman-Marcus. But during the next twenty years, Adams pursued another interest: his love of the West and the cowboy way of life.

Adams had first been exposed to the cowboy way of life when he was a young boy. The family home was near a cattle trail, and Adams, listening to cowboys tell tales when they stopped for lunch, became enthralled, and eventually became one of the most respected and well-known of historians of the cowboy.

The following is list of publications from the web page for the Ramon Adams collection at the University of Texas.

Cowboy Lingo(1936), a book focusing on the language of the cowboy
Western Words(1944), a dictionary of words used by the Cowboy
Charles M. Russell: The Cowboy Artist (1948), the first book-length biography of Russell
Come An' Get It (1952), a monograph about the almost forgotten cowboy cook
Six Guns and Saddle Leather (1954), an annotated bibliography of books about western outlaws and gunmen

After retiring, Adams was even more prolific. Before his death on April 29, 1976, he had published many more books, including:
The Best of the American Cowboy (1957), an anthology of passages from what he considered to be the best books about the cowboy
The Rampaging Herd (1959), his bibliography of the range cattle industry
A Fitting Death for Billy the Kid (1960), a critical account of the kid and the literature about him
The Old Time Cowhand (1961), a book focusing on the cowboy, his life and his work Burs Under the Saddle (1964), a hard hitting look at the inaccuracies in some 400-plus books about the West
From the Pecos to the Powder (1965), a biography of cowboy Bob Kennon
The Legendary West (1965), an exhibit catalog for a Dallas Public Library display of the same title
The Cowman and His Philosophy (1967), a book of the cowman's philosophical sayings The Cowboy and His Humor (1968), a volume discussing the jokes and pranks of the cowboy
The Cowman and His Code of Ethics (1969), a book about the unwritten ethical laws of the range
Western Words (1968), a revised and expanded edition of his 1944 publication
Six Guns and Saddle Leather, a revision of his earlier book by the same title
Cowman Says It Salty (1971), a book of the cowboy's earthy language
Horse Wrangler and His Remuda (1971), a look at the wrangler in cow work
The Adams One-Fifty (1976), Adams' checklist of the 150 most important books on Western outlaws and lawmen.

There's enough there to keep any armchair historian/writer/Western buff busy for quite a few lonesome nights on the range.

The University of Texas, which holds his records, says on their web site: "Never a cowboy himself, he befriended countless of them and has become perhaps their most important chronicler."

Pulp Writer Reviewed by The Tainted Archive

2009-05-21T21:32:00.000-07:00

The Tainted Archive, a well-known blog dedicated to the revival of the Western, recently reviewed Pulp Writer. I want to thank Gary Dobbs for his wonderful review. Gary's first novel, The Tarnished Star, written under the name Jack Martin, will be coming out on June 30th.

To read the review of Pulp Writer, go here.