Riffing on Barry Sadler put me in mind of one of the favorite pulpy authors of my youth: Gordon D. Shirreffs.
Shirreffs wrote vivid, graphic yarns, historical and Western, well-anchored in history. His stuff was damn-near irresistible to my teenaged self: Often set in the American Southwest, his stories featured mountain men and drifting gunmen who carried a wild streak of Scottish warrior heritage. For a budding Celtophile in love with Apache country, it was a cocktail that went straight to the head and thrummed in the bloodstream.
For my money, his best work was a trilogy of novels featuring the Scots-Canadian Mountain Man Quint Kershaw: The Untamed Breed, Bold Legend and Glorietta Pass. The series takes Kershaw from the close of the golden age of the Mountain Men into the Civil War in New Mexico. (For some reason, the original cover for Untamed Breed was scrapped in a mid-90s re-issue in favor of a god-awful romance novel look that would seem to be designed to send the book’s target reader fleeing as if from the growl of a sow grizzly in the underbrush).
Kershaw is a badass, a friend of Kit Carson — a descendant of ancient Celtic warriors who carries their spirit, fortitude and fury unadulterated in his blood. Yep, Shirreffs was as Celtophile as Robert E. Howard. He took it so far as to play in a bagpipe band in his California home. He gave full flower to that obsession in a ripping yarn about a Scottish warrior who ends up in the gladiatorial arena in Rome, titled Calgaich the Swordsman.
These are lusty works, in every sense of the word. Pulpy goodness.
If you’re interested in more, here’s a lengthy interview with Shirreffs from the mid-1990s.
James Reasoner says
Shirreffs is one of my all-time favorite Western writers. And CALGAICH is a great book. There was supposed to be a sequel, but it never came about.
JimC says
Honored to have you you stop by the fire here. Thanks for what you do.
Too bad about the Calgaich sequel…
Matthew says
I never read him. I wonder if he ever read Howard?
There’s been a small cottage industry of stories about heroic resistance of Imperial Rome in the British Isles. Howard’s Bran Mak Morn is the one most people remember today. There’s also Tros of Samothrace by Talbot Mundy and Phra the Phoenician by someone who I forget.
JimC says
I would be VERY surprised if Shirreffs didn’t read REH.
James Reasoner says
Me, too. Some of my friends met Shirreffs, but I never got the chance. If I had, I would have asked him.
PHRA THE PHOENICIAN is by Edwin Arnold, the guy who wrote GULLIVER OF MARS.
Matthew says
Thanks. I was trying to remember who it was.
Tommy says
I still have the paperback of The Untamed Breed. Not very good shape it has not fell apart yet.
deuce says
Sit down before you read this, Jim.
I actually prefer Shirreffs’ Western novels. They’re damned good.
JimC says
Yes, they are. Showdown in Sonora is one of my favorite trad Westerns.
Paul McNamee says
I’ve had CALCAIGH on my list forever. Hell, you probably tipped me off back on the old Conan forums for all I know. (I should make notes of who recommends what..)
I’ve added that Kershaw trilogy to my list, too.