I stumbled over it in the Glendale Public Library back in 1987. You know there’s no way I’m going to pass by a book titled Yellowstone Kelly: Gentleman & Scout. I sat down on the floor in the aisle, cracked it open and started laughing my ass off. Peter Bowen’s first book was an irreverent romp through High Plains Hi-jinx that hit on all the … [Read more...] about The Passing Of A Yarn-Spinner

Daniel Boone may have said that all a man needs to be happy in life is a good gun, a good horse and a good wife — but he damn sure packed a well-thumbed copy of Gulliver’s Travels in his possibles. Books are as important as powder and lead, as necessary as a sharp knife a good ax and a good pair of boots; for some of us as vital as food and … [Read more...] about To Arms! To Arms! Save Your Indie Bookstore!

Deuce Richardson has long held aloft the torch in honor of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Lane Batot will extoll the joys of the Tarzan novels at the drop of a hat — and he’ll drop the hat himself. This is as it should be, for ERB was a genuine Frontier Partisans literary giant — one that I have somehow never fully connected with. That needs to be … [Read more...] about Apaches And Martians — A Frontier Partisans Tribute To Edgar Rice Burroughs

It don’t take no virus to make me want to hole up with this book. Taylor Brown is a badass. He’s as good as they come. I devoured his River of Kings in great bloody chunks, and I know damn well I’ll do the same with his new one. Pride of Eden drops on March 17. Retired racehorse jockey and Vietnam veteran Anse Caulfield rescues exotic big cats, … [Read more...] about Quarantine Me

South Africa is haunted by ghosts: Ghosts of the million who died during the mfecane (The Crushing) when the rise of the Zulu Empire touched off a shockwave of indigenous warfare and migration from 1815 to 1840; ghosts of massacred Trekboers; ghosts of women and children who wasted away in British concentration camps during the Anglo Boer War of … [Read more...] about The Weird Of Deadly Hollow

I recently introduced my friend Leith Easterling to the AMC series Turn: Washington’s Spies, which is streaming on Netflix. If you can get past the liberties (sorry) taken with some of the historical figures — Captain John Simcoe and Robert Rogers especially — it’s an entertaining drama depicting the activities of the Culper Ring in New York during … [Read more...] about Jack Absolute — Frontier Partisan

I woke up this morning thinking about old-school historical potboilers. Yeah, I know. But you all know by now that my mind functions this way... Actually, there’s a straightforward explanation for why I roused from my slumbers with visions of F. van Wyck Mason dancing through my head. I hit the pillow after scrolling through a Kindle series of … [Read more...] about Lusty, Tumultuous Sagas

Last weekend, Marilyn and Ceili and I trekked over the Misty Mountains cold in the teeth of a potent winter storm. We made it through the Redhorn Gate without having to result to a detour through the Mines of Moria, and all missions on this 500-mile loop from Sisters to Portland to Eugene and back to Sisters in 48 hours were accomplished — though … [Read more...] about The Hunt For The White Whirlwind

I had planned to craft a post for December 29 on the anniversary of the daring, reckless and disastrous Jameson Raid into the Transvaal in 1895. I have decided to defer for a very good reason... * Strange to say, the Raid — which had enormous domestic and international political and strategic consequences — has not been all that deeply explored. … [Read more...] about Jameson Raid