Cowboy: The Enduring Myth of the Wild West by Russell Martin

Abstract

340 Western American Literature skills as a writer are substantial. With friends including Paul Horgan, J. Frank Dobie, Eric Knight, Witter Bynner, and John Hersey — some of whom were later guests of the Hurds at Sentinel Ranch — it is small wonder that he could say, “I seem to get much more from writers than from fellow painters” (376). His descriptions of Southwest settings and seasons mailed to his wife in the East show, for example, the precision of his painterly eye, accentuated by the emotional aura of desire for Henriette’s presence. These journals and letters therefore offer many pleasures, many of them unexpected; in addition, we learn a good deal about the day-to-day life of the artist in America, including the struggles for integrity and recognition. The many photographs and paintings included add significantly to the text, and suffer only from being in black-and-white. Paul Horgan’s warm Intro­ duction, neatly encapsulating Hurd’s life, and the Editor’s Preface both pro­ vide a framework within which the letters and journals may be better viewed. That the book itself is moderately hefty and well-bound is a credit to Texas A&M Press. The book may not have been necessary, but it is surely a welcome addition to the literature of the Southwest and the life of art in America. JOSEPH J. WYDEVEN, Bellevue College Cowboy: The Enduring Myth of the Wild West. By Russell Martin. (New York: Stewart, Tabori &Chang, Publishers, 1983. 432 pages, $50.00.) For a long time to come, this book will reward two classes of readers — those who like compellingly attractive photography and those who batten on cultural history and literary and social criticism. I shall set forth its short­ comings, have done with them, and conclude with praise that the work deserves. For what may be good reasons, though they are never expressed, the locales of only a few of the photographs are identified. This is a minor flaw, disturbing to Westerners or to anyone, I should think, with a strong sense of place. A few minor errors of fact catch the reader’s eye. A more serious weakness of this engaging book is its failure to acknowl­ edge the existence — never mind the flourishing — of ultramontane cattle hearths with their vibrant and different tradition. The entire cattle industry did not develop along the eastern vegas and llanos of the Rocky Mountains. Texas ways of doing things are not the whole story of livestock in the West. A book entitled as this one is should recognize and give rightful place to the traditions of the Californio, the buccaroo, who taught Anglo boys in Cali­ fornia, Nevada, Oregon, and southwest Idaho how to work shorthorned cattle and how to break good Oregon and Idaho horses, larger and stronger than the Texas mustangs. (The spelling of any dialect word is always problematic. I prefer buccaroo to buckaroo to avoid the false etymology of the word deriv­ Reviews 341 ing from the bucking of a horse.) Unfortunately, Mr. Martin conforms to the idea that the myth of the cowboy is somehow based along the Texas-Montana axis. It is not. It is in connection with that word myth that much of the book’s merit appears. Mr. Martin does not approach myth as a falsehood, a fabrication intended to mislead, a straw idea for the clever journalist to demolish. Some of his best insights develop from the right application of an understanding of the richness of myth to the substance of the thirteen chapters. The reader can turn to almost any chapter and be satisfied with the cultural history that develops from this understanding. Mr. Martin recognizes the difference between the truth of folklore and the flatness of fact and is comfortable with the notion that fact and truth are not necessarily the same. Chapters 6 and 7, “Horseback Boys” and “Taking Stock,” are superb. Chapter 10, “Darlin’ Outlaws,” is a virtuoso treatment of Country-Western performers and values. Chapter 13, “The Last Roundup,” is a superb reprise of earlier discussion. Indeed, when the minor flaws are corrected, this book is solid, given the author’s Texas-Montana bias. But it should be, considering that...