FAMOUS STORIES OF THE WILD WEST

 

FAMOUS STORIES OF THE WILD WEST

By Leonard Gribble

Cover art by Jack Hayes

A Universal-Tandem Target Adventure Book, 1973 – abridged version

Originally published by Arthur Barker Ltd, 1967

Leonard Gribble had over 200 hundred books published but is probably best known to western readers as Stetson Cody (Cactus Jim Clancy series) and Lee Denver (Cheyenne Jones series). He wrote under a number of other pseudonyms too.

In this collection of ten short stories Gribble writes about real people and events that helped shape the West. All but one of these tales features a full-page illustration by Laszlo Acs in a similar style to those found in pulp magazines.

Most of these stories cover a long period of time. As well as facts and dates, Gribble occasionally includes some dialogue and short descriptive action scenes. When you realize that each story is around fifteen pages long and how much information Gribble fits into each tale you have to praise him for keeping them entertaining as they could so easily have read like a history lesson. 

To people already interested in the American West most of the characters that have their lives, or part of, told in these stories won’t come as a surprise. Having said that, there are a couple of people who I didn’t know much about and Gribble’s story of one of them, Henry Plummer, has me eager to learn more about him. 

Famous Stories of the Wild West is a fascinating and well told collection of short stories that I would think most people who are interested in the history of the American West will enjoy reading.

Contents

The Worst of the Badman Sheriffs
The life of Henry Plummer.

A Great Bunch of Kids
Tells the story of the Pony Express – features a young Bill Cody and others. The cover painting shows the young Cody.

The Coming of the Iron Horse
The challenge to join the Atlantic to the Pacific by rail. Again, features Bill Cody and includes the hunting of buffalo to feed the rail crews. 

When the Daltons Rode
As you’d expect from the title, this story is about the Dalton gang.

There’s Gold in them thar Hills
Tells the tale of John Sutter and the discovery of gold that started one of, if not the biggest gold rush ever.

The Man with the Quicksilver Draw
The life and times of John Wesley Hardin. 

The Legend of Wild Bill
The life and death of James Butler Hickok.

The Cheyenne Ride Out
Tells the tale of when Dull Knife and Little Wolf lead the Cheyenne away from the reservation and the U.S. Army’s attempt to track them down.

Gambler and Gunman
The story of Johnny Ringo. Includes the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, Buckskin Frank Leslie and others.

Tall in the Saddle
This is about Bill Tilghman and his hunt for the Doolin gang. Heck Thomas features too.

COLT FEVER

CACTUS JIM CLANCY

Book 15 of 24

COLT FEVER

By Stetson Cody

Panther Books, September 1963

Originally published by W.A. Allen, 1960

Cattleman, Dan Hollis, is tricked into an ambush by trigger-slammers in the main street of Baxter. It seems only a miracle could save him from an ugly death. To Hollis the intervention of Cactus Jim Clancy at that crisis in his unhappy life might well have been that miracle.

The Cactus Jim Clancy westerns were originally published in hardback, all by W.A. Allen except the last two. The second-last published by Jenkins, and the final book by Hale. W.A. Allen did put some out under their paperback imprint too. Panther Books began a run of five paperbacks starting with Colt Fever. The first Cactus Jim Clancy book appeared in 1949 and the last in 1973.

I guess it won’t be a surprise to anyone to discover that Stetson Cody is a pseudonym. The author behind the name being Leonard Gribble who also wrote westerns as Lee Denver, Landon Grant, Chuck Kelso, and Steve Shane.

Colt Fever is the first book by Gribble I’ve read. 

The story is very traditional. Clancy is a range detective looking out for his employers’ interests and arrives in Baxter to discover why Hollis hasn’t been paying back his loan. The plot is standard fare. It’s a range grab tale with a couple of twists and turns thrown in for good measure. Gribble’s prose is of its time, fairly hardboiled with a lot of western colloquialisms that come from the pulps. These add a neat flavour to the tale.

Gribble mixes the range grab plot with a subplot involving a con-artist and his sister, who are being pursued by an undercover detective. There is also a strong role for another woman, Clarice who is Hollis’ wife. She is sleeping with the Jud Allen, the man who wants to take over the Hollis ranch. Allen also has more problems in that one of his hired guns is attempting to horn in on his business. As various characters set up plans to double-cross each other, so the story becomes more complicated before all the plot threads combine to bring about a satisfactory ending.

I was surprised to find that Cactus Jim Clancy wasn’t in the book that much. Gribble mainly tells the story through the other characters and Clancy just pops up now-and-again to orchestrate the way to deal with problems. He does get involved in some of the gunplay too.

Overall, I found this to be an entertaining enough read to want to read another, but maybe not straightaway.