The Anti-Western?

Social media, I am told, is all abuzz these days with Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Lonesome Dove. While I lack even a passing acquaintance with the online exchanges, I have it on good authority that the book is experiencing a resurgence, heaped with praise all the way up to and including being christened the greatest book of all time.

Much of the discussion revolves around Lonesome Dove being declared by some the “anti-Western.” I’m not sure what that means. It may have to do with the idea that McMurtry attempts to present a realistic portrayal of the Old West, warts and all—a departure from the romanticized, glorified version popularized by Owen Wister, Zane Grey, Louis Lamour, and others, continuing right up to our time. (Not that those good-versus-evil tales with their necessary triumph of the good-guy hero are unusual in literature. The same pattern holds true at least as far back as Homer and the legends of King Arthur, and continues in cozy mysteries, thrillers, fantasies, private-eye novels, Westerns, and even much of literary fiction.) But somehow, calling Lonesome Dove the “anti-Western” gives supercilious readers permission to read a Western novel—something their refined, sophisticated tastes would not allow otherwise.

But there is nothing new in Lonesome Dove’s attempt to present a raw, unvarnished version of the Old West. It has been done before and since, many times. Andy Adams tried it in 1903 in The Log of a Cowboy, a trail drive novel that, unlike Lonesome Dove, grew out of the author’s personal experiences.
Paso Por Aqui, penned by Eugene Manlove Rhodes in 1925, cannot be written off as glamorizing its subject. Nor can The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, which has been turning the mythical Old West on its head since 1940. Glendon Swarthout’s The Shootist (not the movie, which pulls Swarthout’s punches) breaks all the expectations of the triumph of good over evil. True Grit by Charles Portis also represents a departure.

A previous Pulitzer Prize-winning novel set in the Old West, Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, presents a realistic view borrowed from the experiences of real-life Western transplant Mary Hallock Foote.

It would be difficult to depart from the romantic view further than Cormac McCarthy does in Blood Meridian and The Crossing, or E.L. Doctorow in Welcome to Hard Times. Loren D. Estleman’s Bloody Season demonstrates the dubious distinctions between heroes and villains. And while a glamorized view of the Old West peeks through in Ivan Doig’s Dancing at the Rascal Fair and The Meadow by James Galvin, it is portrayed through the eyes of some characters, and is countered by the notions of other characters.

Are these examples—and others out there—“anti-Westerns,” or are they merely Western literature, sharing the stage with the broad range of plots, points of view, and approaches that make reading good books of any genre a joy? I cast my vote for the latter. To me, Lonesome Dove is not “anti-Western” at all, but “pro” good reading and a great Western novel.

Catching up.

Not long ago, I dusted off a favorite LP record album from the past and gave it a listen. It’s still good. The record, by legendary country singer and songwriter Roger Miller (no relation), is titled, “Dear Folks Sorry I Haven’t Written Lately.” Well, folks, I haven’t written lately here either, although I doubt I have been missed.

The last few months on the writing front have been tied up with a lot of busy work. Here’s a rundown.

And the River Ran Red, my historical novel about the Massacre at Bear River, is now available in paperback and eBook from publisher Speaking Volumes at all the online booksellers. Find it in paperback at Amazon US  and Barnes & Noble; and in eBook at Amazon US, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, and Kobo Books.

Also just released is an anthology of Western short stories that, so far as anyone can determine, is the first crowd-funded Western ever. It’s the result of a lot of hard work by editor Jeff Mariotte and Kickstarter. It’s now available online everywhere in paperback and eBook. My story, “The Incident Above Mentioned” is the lead story in Silverado Press Presents Western Stories by Today’s Top Writers.

Another collection of short stories is due in large print from Thorndike Publishing in late July. This one is a collaboration with friend and fellow author Michael Norman. Shiny Spurs and Gold Medallions features our award-winning Western stories (Western Writers of America Spur Awards, Will Rogers Medallion Awards, and elsewhere), along with some new offerings.

Then there’s Buckoffs and Broken Barriers: Rodeo Poems, a new collection of poetry in the works at publisher Speaking Volumes. The book, as the title suggests, is all about rodeo, and includes poems both serious and silly. Some have appeared in magazines long ago, some in other collections and anthologies, and many are published here for the first time.

Speaking Volumes also has the manuscript for a new novel featuring Rawhide Robinson,  ordinary cowboy and extraordinary spinner of tall tales. This adventure, titled Rawhide Robinson Rides with Old Blue, has our raconteur in the employ of Charlie Goodnight, trailing cattle northward led by Goodnight’s legendary lead steer, Old Blue. But Old Blue keeps walking even after reaching Ogallala, and Rawhide Robinson follows the big steer into the great white north to fetch him back to Texas.

And, amidst all that, I have been writing short articles from Western history for the online publication Cowboy State Daily. Of late they have published my pieces about Charlie Siringo; the 1896 Montpelier, Idaho bank robbery; the Parcel Post Bank in Vernal, Utah; and Wild Bill Hickok’s gunfight in Springdale, Missouri.

Also on the horizon is a new novel from Speaking Volumes that will see the light of day later this year. Where the Long Trail Ends is set on a cattle drive on the Chisholm Trail. The title is a line from a poem by George Rhoades, an old college professor of mine, who is also an award-winning poet. Then there’s a new novel about the Pony Express, The Mail Must Get Through, as well as paperback and eBook editions of my previous hardcover books This Thy Brother and Black Joe and Other Selected Stories.

After all that, who knows what else the future holds?

Sorry to fill your day with so much chin music, but I wanted to make up for lost time.

Stupid words.

For years, decades, I earned my daily bread in the advertising trade, working in advertising agencies. My job was on the creative side, developing strategies that would most effectively lure customers, then turning them into ads in whatever media was required. The goal was always to use ideas and words and pictures and music to arouse interest and keep viewers or readers or listeners watching or reading or listening long enough to absorb whatever message we wished to convey. We always believed the audience deserved some level of respect in exchange for our intrusion into their lives.

But most people in the advertising business, like most people in most businesses, do not care all that much. They don't care if the advertising is creative or entertaining or inventive or unexpected. They are just putting in the time, putting their emphasis on looking and sounding good in the endless supply of meetings, both within the agency and with clients. They do not want to rock the boat; “give the clients what they want,” is the force that motivates them.

And that is why most advertising falls somewhere between invisible and inane.

That is why some guy in a tie somewhere decided that holding a “sale” is no longer good enough. That the public is no longer interested in discounted prices. That calling a sale a “sales event” would excite the audience (for whom they have little respect) into showing up in frenzied droves and parting with their money. After all, isn’t the very idea of an “event” exciting? Wouldn’t it deserve three—no, four—exclamation points in social media?

While this earth-shattering development has little effect on audiences, it somehow resonates with advertisers. So it’s, so long to a “sale,” and hello to a “sales event.” Car companies, in particular, have made adding “event” to a “sale” mandatory, it seems. And “sales event” has disseminated, propagated, and circulated until it is ubiquitous.

Most people probably don’t even notice it, just as they don’t notice most of the dumbed-down, simple-minded advertising messages that interrupt every aspect of their lives. But no one, I daresay, is so excited, so electrified, so hypnotized by a “sales event” as opposed to a mere “sale” that they rush right out and gleefully part with their money.

I could be wrong. I haven’t been in a client meeting in years. But one thing’s for sure—somebody is stupid when it comes to “sales events.” It could be me.

Utah cowboys at the National Finals Rodeo

Ten of the best days of the year ended Saturday night with the completion of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s National Finals Rodeo. Rodeo fans know that cowboys from across America and Canada, with a few thrown in from Australia and Brazil, compete all year long to win enough prize money to rank among the top 15 cowboys in their events and qualify for the National Finals.

It’s a grueling test—ten straight days of matching yourself against the best bucking horses and bulls, and select calves and steers in the timed events.

Utah cowboys cleaned house this year, sweeping up all the honors in the roughstock events.

Josh Frost of Randlett won the bull riding, winning two go-rounds and placing in five others, sewing up his place as the World Champion Bull Rider. Hayes Weight, from my hometown of Goshen, finished up second in the world standings, winning two go-rounds. Just behind him in third place in the world is Cooper James of Erda, with two go-round wins and placing in three other rounds. Tyler Bingham of Howell won a go-round and placed in two others, and finished in the world rankings at number eight.

Dean Thompson of Altamont won two go-rounds in the bareback riding and placed in six more and came home the World Champion Bareback Bronc Rider.

In the saddle bronc riding, Ryder Wright of Beaver won four go-rounds and placed in five more to become the World Champion Saddle Bronc Rider—for the third time. His younger brother Statler won a go-round and placed in four more, and finished the year in eighth place in the standings.

A Utah cowboy made some noise in the timed events as well. Cash Robb of Altamont won the steer wrestling at the Finals, winning money in six go-rounds and placing third in the world standings.

The State of Utah should be pleased with this unprecedented performance by our cowboys. I know I am.

 

Interview in Route 7 Review.

Utah Tech University in St. George publishes Route 7 Review, a digital literary arts journal. The name comes from a short highway through red rock and sand deep in southwestern Utah. A while back, while in the neighborhood for a “Poet on the Patio” reading at the city’s fine bookstore, the Book Bungalow, Utah Tech professor Stephen Armstrong and I talked about cowboy poetry.

Dr. Armstrong managed to wrangle my wandering words into some semblance of sense and the interview is included in the latest is issue of Route 7 Review, under a title honoring my hometown: The Man from Goshen. The links will take you there.

It was a sad day for Western writers everywhere when Five Star Publishing, where several of my novels had found a home in hardcover editions, closed down. However, another publisher in the same conglomerate, Thorndike Press, which had released those same novels in large print editions, invited a few of Five Star’s Western authors to submit manuscripts for publication as large-print originals.

There are two new novels of mine out in large print as of now, and a third will be along soon. It’s a trilogy, a series, with the overall title borrowed from this quotation by Ernest Hemingway: “There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.” The line seemed appropriate for a bounty hunter, and so the series.

The star of the trilogy is Matt Crowder, formerly a deputy United States Marshal and now an independent hunter of men. Hanging Man: The Hunting of Man Book 1 is now available. Crowder encounters a man hanging from a tree with no identification and few clues concerning his identity or his fate. He spends the next 339 pages figuring it out, encountering all kinds of complications and adventures along the way.  

Also available is Running Man: The Hunting of Man Book 2, in which Crowder pursues an escaped convict whose goal is to put as much distance between his escape and pursuit as he can, as fast as he can. Again, our bounty hunter is relentless, and during the chase uncovers government corruption.

Hiding Man: The Hunting of Man Book 3 will be along soon. All are (or will be) available on Amazon and the usual online retailers. Since these are large-print editions they are a bit pricey, but may well be available on the shelves at your local library. So, check out “The Hunting of Man” series—both figuratively and literally.

In the news.

A while back I was invited to write for Cowboy State Daily. It’s an online newspaper published in, as you may well guess, Wyoming.

My friend and longtime acquaintance Candy Moulton created a section for the publication called The American West. Several writers and historians including Candy, Jim Crutchfield, Terry Del Bene, and others contribute stories focused on some aspect of Western history. The stories are bite-size and readable in minutes, but provide much knowledge and enjoyment.

Of course there’s more to Cowboy State Daily than The American West, including news and opinion pieces. There’s even a column written by a man named Rod Miller, who is not me. So, to avoid confusion, my byline in the paper is R.B. Miller.

Give Cowboy State Daily a look. You’ll find The American West is waiting for you.