Reviews The Popular Western Novel: An Essay Review. Last spring, when J. Golden Taylor and James K. Folsom were presenting a panel on Western American literature in Bemidji, Minnesota, Professor Taylor suggested that I write an article on the output of Double D Westerns published by Doubleday and Company. It sounded like a good idea at the time. Six months and eighteen novels later, the idea didn’t seem so good. I had, and still have, some grave reservations about the series. However, an essay-review of the series may provide an opportunity to place the popular Western novel somewhat in perspective in its relationship to serious Western American literature. First it might be a good idea to present a list of the novels I read while conducting this study. Ernest Hemingway once said something to the effect that there was no order for listing good books. Since there probably shouldn’t be any order at the other end of the scale either, I’ll arrange the novels alphabetically by author: Bickham, Jack M. Target: Charity Ross Brown, Dee. Action at Beecher Island Cheshire, Giff. Ambush at Bedrock Farrell, Cliff. Treachery Trail, and Death Trap on the Platte Grove, Fred. The Buffalo Runners Gulick, Bill. Liveliest Town in the West Hanlon, Edward S. The Lives that Die Hoffman, Lee. The Valdez Horses, and West of Cheyenne Huffman, Laurie. A House Behind the Mint Meade, Richard. Big Bend Olsen, Theodore V. Arrow in the Sun Patten, Lewis B. Posse from Poison Creek, The Youngerman Guns, and The Red Sabbath 300 Western American Literature Turner, William O. Maberly’s Kill Vernam, Glenn R. The Indian Hater There is little sense in describing the plot outlines for each one of these novels, but within that list may be found every stereotype of the popular Western, from the psychological examination of a disintegrating hired gun who has killed too many people to the shoot-out at somebody or other’s corral. There is a Shane-like novel, an Ox-Bow Incident-like novel, and even one that reads like a script for T.V.’s “F-Troop.” The most unsuccessful of the lot is Laurie Huffman’s A House Behind the Mint, which reads like a Life With Father in San Francisco, with a bit of the mysterious Black Bart thrown in for suspense. It is, perhaps, the only one of the eighteen that is not wellexecuted at the “action” level; at the same time, it must be admitted, Miss Huffman’s novel is perhaps the only novel that presumes to be anything more than an action story. One of the most important points about these novels, I think, is that they are not presumptuous. Each one (with the exception of Miss Huffman’s) is an “action-packed thriller,” to invent a phrase, and most of the writers are highly skilled in the development of plot. The novels carry one along despite the fact that they say nothing significant, that the characterization is about as deep as a New Mexican arroyo in the middle of a dry August, and that — as with some serious Western writers —the effort to achieve authenticity is often so obvious that it now and again strains the reader’s patience. In the middle of an ambush, with Indians howling around by the dozen and the embattled soldiers running out of ammunition plus being over-run by a prairie fire plus dying of hunger and thirst plus a heroine alone up in the rocks about to be discovered by a wicked Indian chief, the reader is not too con cerned, say, that some of the men are using Vickers-Webley 45-70’s or Purdey 36-80’s or Sophia Loren 36-24-32’s or whatever. Nor is he concerned about the history of the gun; he is concerned with the action. T o use a Western literature analogy, what the reader wants to know is whether Barney Tullus is going to get the hell up on that horse or sit back down in whatever it was he was sitting in. And pity the poor Indian with his war lance raised in the air and who must remain poised...
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Nov 1, 2022
Elaine Hendriks Smith 
Open Access