Cowboys of the Wild West by Russell Freedman
1987; University of Nebraska Press; Volume: 22; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/wal.1987.0116
ISSN1948-7142
Autores Tópico(s)American Environmental and Regional History
Resumo172 Western American Literature With the Nevada killings, he also became something of a cult hero; for many Westerners he personifies an old spirit of defiance. Jeff Long accents the mythic dimension, twice even comparing Dallas to Ulysses. But Long himself does not succumb to such hero worship. He gives detailed attention to Bill Pogue, one of the fish and game wardens who had gone after Dallas. Pogue’s commitment to the West was different from that ofDallas. Pogue was touched “deeply,” Long says, by the clash between civilization and wilderness and was himself also an embodiment of the mountain man as he had found him in Vardis Fisher’s Mountain Man. It is doubtful that Claude Dallas ever experi enced the same nostalgic ache. Hence, Long, like many observers at Dallas’s trial for murder, is struck by the ironic twist that had made the dead Bill Pogue seem the defendant, for Dallas proved as adept on the stand as he had been with his guns. The account of the trial, the most intense part of the book, transcends what actually hap pened in the courtroom. We sense the meanings the trial has to the public at large—and what a slippery thing human justice is. In fiction and in fact, in the West people often expect little satisfaction from the law. Those tempted to act outside the bounds of the law can sometimes be made heroes. Our newspapers, as well as Jeff Long’sbrisk narrative of a notorious case, remind us that there are still many who will answer some call of the wild, determined to create their own justice, seemingly at any cost. JOSEPH M. FLORA The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Cowboys of the Wild West. ByRussell Freedman. (New York: Clarion Books/ Ticknor &Fields, 1985. 103 pages, $14.95.) Ordinarily, WAL does not review children’s books. We are making an exception for Cowboys of the Wild West because Russell Freedman has attempted what few authors of children’s literature attempt: to counteract rather than perpetuate a stereotype. He does not do so, however, with the intent of stomping on a cherished myth, gleefully exposing childhood heroes as frauds. Instead, he simply explains the development of the American cattle industry, from the “barefoot Indian cow herders called vaqueros” to “the last herd . . . driven north to Kansas in 1896.” Throughout the narrative, Freed man compares the “real” cowboy to his Hollywood counterpart. He says, for instance, “Today, in movies and TV shows about the Old West, cowboys are usually white. In real life, they were often black or Mexican.” The photo graphs which supplement the text back up his words, revealing cowboys of various shapes, sizes, ages, and races. Children who read this book will learn that not all cowboys were handsome, clean-shaven white men with six-shooters permanently attached to their hips. Freedman includes quotes from the memoirs of cowboys who actually rode the range, like Teddy Blue Abbott, Charles Siringo, and Andy Adams, to further prove his point. Abbott, for Reviews 173 instance, is quoted as saying he “never . . . saw a cowboy with two guns.” Another Texas cowboy reveals he “always took plenty of novels ... and usually a cat” when he went out to work on the winter range. Freedman dispels a lot of the glamour surrounding the image of the American cowboy, but he does so gently, in the manner of one who was himself brought up believing the cowboy was a “fellow who says ‘yup’ and ‘nope,’ who never complains, who shoots straight, and whose horse comes when he whistles.” By portraying a more accurate and complete picture of cowboy life, Freedman is telling children that cowboys were heroes enough as they were—without the embellishments others later deemed it necessary to add to their image. CHARLOTTE M. WRIGHT Utah State University The Texas Experience. Compiled by Archie P. McDonald. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1986. 179 pages, $19.95.) This very attractive volume was published for the Texas Committee for the Humanities as part of the celebration of the Texas Sesquicentennial. Designed for prominent display, it has a pleasing cover and seven excellent color and many black and white illustrations...
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