- Reasoner, James.
Draw: The Greatest Gunfights of the American West.
New York: Berkley, 2003.
ISBN 0-425-19193-1.
-
The author is best known as a novelist, author of a
bookshelf
full of yarns, mostly set in the Wild West, but also of the
War Between the States and World War II. In this, his first work of nonfiction
after twenty-five years as a writer, he sketches in 31 short chapters
(of less than ten pages average length, with a number
including pictures) the careers and climactic (and often career-ending)
conflicts of the best known gunslingers of the Old West, as well as
many lesser-known figures, some of which were just as deadly
and, in their own time, notorious. Here are tales of Wyatt
Earp, Doc Holliday, the Dalton Gang, Bat Masterson, Bill Doolin, Pat
Garrett, John Wesley Hardin, Billy the Kid, and Wild Bill
Hickok; but also Jim Levy, the Jewish immigrant from Ireland
who was considered by both Earp and Masterson to be one of the
deadliest gunfighters in the West; Henry Starr, who robbed banks
from the 1890s until his death in a shoot-out in 1921, pausing
in mid-career to write, direct, and star in a
silent movie about his exploits,
A Debtor to the Law;
and Ben Thompson, who Bat Masterson judged to be the fastest gun in
the West, who was, at various times, an Indian fighter, Confederate
cavalryman, mercenary for Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, gambler,
gunfighter,…and chief of police of Austin, Texas. Many of the
characters who figure here worked both sides of the law, in some cases
concurrently.
The author does not succumb to the temptation to glamorise these
mostly despicable figures, nor the tawdry circumstances in which
so many met their ends. (Many, but not all: Bat Masterson survived
a career as deputy sheriff in Dodge City, sheriff of Ford County,
Kansas, Marshal of Trinidad, Colorado, and as itinerant gambler
in the wildest towns of the West, to live the last twenty years
of his life in New York City, working as sports editor and
columnist for a Manhattan newspaper.) Reasoner does, however,
attempt to spice up the narrative with frontier lingo
(whether genuine or bogus, I know not): lawmen and “owlhoots”
(outlaws) are forever slappin' leather, loosing or dodging hails
of lead, getting thrown in the hoosegow, or seeking the comfort
of the soiled doves who plied their trade above the saloons.
This can become tedious if you read the book straight
through; it's better enjoyed a chapter at a time spread out
over an extended period. The chapters are completely independent
of one other (although there are a few cross-references), and
may be read in any order. In fact, they read like a collection of
magazine columns, but there is no indication in the book they
were ever previously published. There is a ten page bibliography
citing sources for each chapter but no index—this is
a substantial shortcoming since many of the chapter titles do not name
the principals in the events they describe, and since the paths
of the most famous gunfighters crossed frequently, their stories are
spread over a number of chapters.
July 2006 