WESTERN STORY
British Edition, Vol. VI, No.5
Atlas Publishing, March 1949
Cover art by William R. Leigh
This publication of Street & Smith’s Western Story is a partial reprint of the American issue from September 1948. The UK version first appeared in 1939 and continued, with slight changes to its title, until 1961. By my count, there were 167 issues.
We start with the short story Light Up Your Six-Gun by Ralph Yergen. He’s a new author to me who wrote just over 100 stories for the western pulps. This quick paced yarn is about a cigar salesman, Horatio Oberlander Holyoke, who finds one of his best customers, Blaine, in jail accused of murder. Holyoke sets out to prove Blaine is innocent. Whist doing so, we find that Holyoke is very handy with a gun. Holyoke has to save himself from a death trap and the explanation of how he realized he was in grave danger is linked to his profession and that put a grin on my face. I also laughed out loud at the final line of the story, that even though I knew it was coming, I still found it funny. This was a very readable tale that left me wondering if Holyoke appeared in any of Yergen’s other stories cos I’d certainly like to read them if he did.
Peter Dawson’s novella, Retribution River, is next. Dawson is a pseudonym used by Jonathan H. Glidden, who had over 100 stories published in the pulps. His story is a land grab tale. A ranch owning banker, Cavendish, decides he wants more land and sets about driving other ranchers away. The main character is Pete Sarran and he teams up with another couple of men who’ve been driven out. Riding with them is a man named Brazos who none of them know. Brazos talks them into getting back at Cavendish by robbing his bank. The raid doesn’t go according to plan and Brazos rides off with the loot. Sarran was right to mistrust Brazos and sets out to find the double-crosser and there’s a surprise waiting for him when he does track down his quarry. I’ve not read many stories by Glidden, but I’ve enjoyed the handful I have, and Retribution River was just as good as any of them, even though it did have a predictable plot.
Another novella follows, Mavericks of Moonrock Range by Rod Patterson, who is another author I haven’t read before. Patterson had over 200 stories published in western pulps. Patterson pulled me into his tale immediately with questions that needed answers. Clyde Desbrow sees a note in a newspaper telling him to return to his father’s ranch by a specific date if he wants to claim his inheritance. What he finds at the ranch shocks him but he intends to sort out the wrongs he sees happening in his home. Patterson’s writes well, his prose creating a dark tone to a story filled with tense scenes and intrigue. I can’t really say anymore without spoiling it other than to say I wasn’t a fan of the nick-of-time ending which made me think the author did this as he was running out of pages. This story, for me, would have been much better longer with a bit more explanation as to why certain characters did what they did. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this tale a lot and am eager to read more of Patterson’s work.
Next we have a novelette by Wayne D. Overholser called The Long Haul. Overholser had just over 400 western tales under his own name and a more under a variety of pseudonyms published in western pulps. The Long Haul tells the tale of a decision lawman Lance Gregg has to make: does he take in a wanted man as the law says he should or let him go out in a blaze of glory taking down other outlaws? That’s all there is to the plot, but it was enough to keep me turning the pages to see which choice Gregg would make. The tales ends with a swift shootout that brings everything to a satisfactory conclusion.
Walt Coburn’s Guns Across the Rio Grande is a novella that tells the story of The Rio Kid who has been falsely accused of murdering a Texas Ranger. The Ranger’s Captain, Jess Clayton, doesn’t believe the Kid, whose real name is Carlos McCarty, is the killer. Clayton helps the Kid escape from jail and then they set out to track down and bring to justice the real murderer which involves a cattle drive to tempt some rustlers to steal the herd. This is a fast paced read that includes some great action scenes. I enjoyed reading it, even though it was obvious how things would turn out. I did have to take my time with some of the speech as Coburn writes it as his characters say it, for example the Mexican Pepe says “Por Dios, ees een my blood to be a gon fighter!” I do find this kind of writing adds flavour to these stories so it’s welcomed by me if not excessively done as it can really slow a story down if you have to re-read it to understand what is being said. Coburn was a popular author for the western pulps and had around 800 stories published in them.
The last tale is a novella by Michael Trent called Badlands Showdown. Trent had nine stories published across a variety of western pulps so is probably the least known of the authors featured in this issue of Western Story. Jim Dunstan, foreman of the Aurora Land & Cattle Company is determined to bring an end to the rustling in the area. Trouble is, it seems a friend is passing on information to the gang of outlaws which, as distasteful as exposing who this will be, Dunstan sums it up by saying “Guilt and friendship don’t go together.” In such a short story it was easy to work out who the bad guy was and who would get the girl, but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment of this story.
This British issue of Western Story also includes the poem Chuckwagon Menu by S. Omar Barker and the very short column Range Savvy by Gene King, neither of which struck a chord with me.
This pulp magazine also contains a bit of information about cover artist William R. Leigh telling us he was an author as well as an artist. Leigh wrote short stories on Indian life that appeared in a variety of American magazines. The story The Western Pony both written and illustrated by Leigh was named as one of the fifty best books of 1933 by the American Institute of Graphic Arts.
Overall, I thought this was a good issue of Western Story as I enjoyed all the stories it contained.
