Writing About the Western United States

Abstract

James K. Folsom, ed. The Western: ,4 Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, 1979. 177pp. L.L. Lee and Merrill Lewis, eds. Women. Women Writers, and the West. Troy, N.Y.: Whitston Publishing, 1980. 252 pp. John R. Milton. The Novel of the American West. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980. 341 pp. William W. Savage, Jr. The Cowboy Hero: His Image in American History & Culture. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979. 179 pp. MEMORANDUM From: Jonah Cetacea, Chairman To: Prof. Izaak Walton Re: Classes in 1981-82 Since the popularity of Canadian Literature of the West continues to result in overflow enrollments, the Class Committee wishes you to teach the long-dormant Western American Fiction next year, in order to accommodate those students wanting to study in the department. Please send your text list.... I will return to this excerpt, but first picture in your mind's eye a saloon in College town, in which five men are playing poker. They come from an ordinary town of its sort, picturesque and populated mostly by Homosapien Scholars and their disciples, who pursue money, promotion, degrees and hockey pucks. At this poker table are Mythhunter, Compiler, Wheeler-Dealer, Teacher, and Reviewerskeptic. They have been winning and losing money for several hours; it is late and they are betting on the last hand of five-card draw. Compiler bets a dollar...and the betting goes on until first Wheeler- Dealer and then Mythhunter decide the game is too rich for their weak cards. Then Compiler folds. Teacher bets three dollars (these modest amounts are typical of Collegetown poker games). Reviewerskeptic likes the odds and raises a dollar, whereupon Teacher calls. His aces and fours beat the kings and tens.