Will Henry’s West ed. by Dale L. Walker
1985; University of Nebraska Press; Volume: 20; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/wal.1985.0111
ISSN1948-7142
Autores Tópico(s)American History and Culture
ResumoReviews 267 Will Henry’s West. Edited by Dale L. Walker. (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1984. 208 pages, $18.00.) “I am but a solitary horseman of the plains, born a century too late and far away,” writes Will Henry in his epigraph to this handsome new tribute to the American West. “I ride them yet, these lonely outlands of the past, but only now in poignant callings-back of my imagination, a creature at once imprisoned and set free, a captive helpless to the years, entrapped thereby as everyman who is the son of mortal gods.” The lyrical cadence, as well as the romantic sentiment, of this nostalgic confession epitomizes those unique quali ties which have made Henry Wilson Allen (a.k.a. Clay Fisher and Will Henry) America’s most gifted Poet of the High Plains. He is, in literal fact, our leading writer of “serious” Westerns. As Dale Walker points out in his introductory essay, “. . .Will Henry is virtually alone, even among the biggest-named Western writers, in having 46 of his 53 books published in hardcover by America’s most prestigious houses—Random, Lippincott , Simon & Schuster, Julian Messner, Houghton Mifflin, Macmillan, Morrow.” He is also our most popular author of historical Westerns—having sold over fifteen million copies of Bantam Books alone. In distinguishing his genre from what he calls the “formulary” Western, Henry maintains that his works are “fiction built upon history, not fiction paraded as history.” He claims, furthermore, that “for all their romanticism, his books are better history than most which are sold as straight historicals.” Will Henry is clearly most at home in the Western, as is revealed by the six stories and eleven essays which, along with Walker’s sensitive introduc tion, comprise this collection. What they also reveal is Henry’s extraordinary versatility within his chosen genre. The tales are rich with action, adventure, irony, pathos, humor—all those basic ingredients that make the tragi-comedy of human existence such a fascinating affair. The essays are a moving testa ment to the author’s conviction that the Old West will never die, that in myth there is a truth which transcends historical fact, and that such truth lives on in its fictive avatars through whom the Code is manifest “to all men every where” : “Don’t give up. Fight on. Live clean. Be true. Be square. Be fair. You will always win in the end.” Will Henry is obviously a man who still believes in heroes. The essential lesson of the Western Myth—and a central theme of Will Henry’s work—is that “heroes are forever.” Beyond the heroic fiber and the fine lyrical texture which give this writer’s works so much of their appeal, two other important elements insure the durability of his contribution to western literature: his pervasive good humor and his deep-seated compassion for all living creatures, great and small, on God’s earth. Because of these special qualities, as we join Will Henry in his nostalgic journey across the “lonely outlands of the past,” each of us may ride a little taller. EARLE LABOR Centenary College of Louisiana ...
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