A great tale - as usual Rhodes combines the lives, circumstances, and events of people and places HE actually knew and ... you can taste the dust, and smell the sweat of the horse swaying beneath you. Bring a canteen, a good knife, and a pile of hard-tack

This short novel first appeared in the February 2-27 issues of the Saturday Evening Post in 1926. Rhodes was a writer living and writing out of New Mexico who was a very colorful person, often getting in trouble with the law (including with Sheriff Pat Garrett). This particular novel is regarded by many as one of the best westerns ever. In 1977 it was voted by the Western Writers of America one of the top twenty-five westerns of all time. Rhodes' novels are highly regarded in that they are felt to accurately depict life in the West. Apparently, Rhodes was an opponent of Sheriff Pat Garrett in his younger days yet grew incensed in his later years at how Garrett was mistreated in books and film. In this novel, he presents Garrett as a man he knew, as a thoughtful and generous professional. The novel starts out with a humorous bank robbery in Bolan, New Mexico, by red-headed Ross McEwen. McEwen rides south, evading all of the posses sent after him. Finally, in order to throw them off his trail near the White Sands desert, he releases his horse and starts riding a steer. He comes across a cabin containing a Mexican family (a mother, two sons, and a grandfather), all of whom have contracted diphtheria. Without hesitating, he starts to help them. One of the things remarkable about this book is how an author, born in 1869, and living among "gringos" in New Mexico is able to write a novel in the 1920s treating Caucasians and Hispanics so equally. There is no bigotry here. Perhaps, bigotry between "gringos" and Mexicans was not as prevalent in the Southwest as the more recent films and novels would have us believe. At least, not among Westerners. Notice that the "hero" of the book doesn't even hesitate to think about helping the family. He does it even though it may lead to his capture. Perhaps this is another typically Western response. The book was made into a poorly-received film released in the late 1940s entitled "Four Faces West" starring Joel McCrea and Charles Bickford.

I haven't read this particular edition, but I read an older edition, so it's possible the racist bias of the author has been discussed in the foreward, or perhaps even eliminated. But in the edition I read, the author seemed to applaud the cold blooded murder of blacks committed by a gunslinger who would today be considered a serial killer. In spite of the author's unsavory sympathy with the racist motives of the murders, I think it's wonderful that he recorded the racism of the old west. Popular culture has pretty much overlooked the presence of black folks in the old west and the rabid racism they had to live with. In this book innocent black men are murdered by a crazed killer who I had never heard of before (his name escapes me at the moment). He killed more people than any other western outlaw, according to the author, mainly because his murder of black people was condoned and even applauded by the white populace. These weren't gunfights in the standard sense, but cold blooded assasinations. The author neglects to villify this killer with the same passion he villifies other gunfighters in the book, but if you can overlook the distaste his attitude leaves in your mouth, the book can be very informative about one of the dark secrets of the old west.

A look at the old west is best done in Triggernometry. This book tells the real (if not short) stories about the well known gunfighters. It gives no glamor to what they did, just the facts. If you are a fan of Westerns or one who studies the old west, this book is a must.

After reading several books on the Old West outlaws, I was curious to the content of their footnotes, and bibliographies, using this book. Which is the reason I bought and read it.

This is a great western book. Copyrighted 1934.
This not only has short histories on several gunfighters, but there is also a nice section on how to perform the flashy moves with the six-shooter. If you've tried these spins, twirls and shifts, you've no doubt found them difficult to perform. Yet John Wesley Hardin was a master at it, and it was Hardin, who taught Ringo the tricks. ( Hardin also told the guards, to get that psychopath--Ringo---out my cell. They shared the same cell in prison)

I would consider this a mandatory book for a Old West gunfighters library. You have the primary sources for many of the other later books.

This is the best known work of Rhodes, a New Mexico schoolteacher-rancher turned author. It is a charming story, but is probably best understood as a good quality dime-novel of the period; kids over 10 will probably get as much out of it as adults. If you like the work, I recommend the biography Rhodes' wife, May Davidson Rhodes, wrote about him; it was one of my favorite books growing up as a kid.

Eugene Manlove Rhodes spent the better part of his life in turn of the century untamed New Mexico as a horseman and cowman, and in his late life wrote western novels and short stories about his unique and exciting escapades. Most of his novels deal with real characters from the real Wild West, and the stories offer those of us interested in it a splendidly honest account of the "good men and true...humorous and happy and care-free and polite...But when it came to putting something over on them or their friends...these men were hard, and stern, tireless, loyal and grim, courageous and resourceful." Gene Rhodes knew men whose lives changed the Wild West and New Mexico, men like Pat Garrett, Senator Albert Fall, and Oliver Lee. He understood the wild land and the people who settled there but never tamed it. In this biography, author Frank M. Clark offers readers the letters that passed between Rhodes and his long-time friend, editor and publisher Charles Fletcher Lummis. Both were unusually gifted men, articulate, generous-spirited, and loyal; both knew the West and understood it in all its paradoxes and complexities. Author Clark brings Rhodes and Lummis to life in an intriguing way that makes for great reading for lovers of the West. Clark has the gift most biographers hope for: the ability to paint a generous yet honest view of his subjects. This biography is a must for every fan of the real Wild West and the true Western genre.