T.T. Flynn (the first T stood for Thomas and the second for Theodore) was one of the more mature writers of Westerns to move into slick magazine and book publication in the 1950s. I know, it’s hard for you non-Western readers to imagine a story from that genre that was intended for grown-ups, but you should take a look at Flynn, Luke Short and Ernest Haycox as starters.
It’s not that their yarns never contained gunfights and saloon brawls, but those favorite elements were not the high points of their books. Stop a second and remember some of the movies based on their stories: Short’s CORONER CREEK, Haycox’s STAGECOACH and Flynn’s THE MAN FROM LARAMIE.
It’s the latter that’s our topic for today. It was serialized in the last great slick magazine to publish smart genre fiction, THE SATURDAY EVENING POST. That hit the stands every week, so you didn’t have to wait too long for an entire story to run, frequently condensed to two or three installments. I can remember reading new Perry Mason mysteries in the POST. LARAMIE saw magazine print in 1954, and then made the jump to book form the following year, the same year the film went into release.
The movie was the last of five collaborations between director Anthony Mann and actor James Stewart, a teaming that began with WINCHESTER ’73 in 1950. Mann and Stewart brought the same kind of maturity to Western movies that Flynn brought to fiction.
In it basic outline, LARAMIE sounds like any another Western: Will Lockhart comes to Coronado, N.M., in the guise of a fiddlefoot who buys the right to dig salt from a quarry. He doesn’t know that, due to deal-making and -breaking, he doesn’t really have permission. When he’s discovered loading his wagons by the real masters of the salt lake, they shoot his 26 mules and beat the living crap out of him.
Young Dave Waggoman, son of fading patriarch Alec Waggoman, orders his right-hand bully Vic Hansbro to hand out the thrashing. As soon as he’s able, Will faces down Hansbro in town and returns the favor.
“With better spirit Will ran at Vic Hansbro’s bristling frenzy and dodged Hansbro’s wild blow. The huge bleeding knuckles skidded over Will’s left ear. Even that close a miss caused a numb feeling, as if the rear had almost been torn away … Will brought both fists
up fast in a sledging strike into Hansbro’s beard and throat and underjaw. He never guessed it, Will thought unbelievingly.”
Oh, yeah, Flynn can write action — never an easy thing to do.
Smaller ranch owner Kate Canaday hires Will to protect her interests from the empire-building Waggomans, and pretty Barbara Kirby — gotta have a pretty young gal — is being courted by Frank Darrah, the novel’s true snake in the grass.
What the reader learns early on — and the book’s character much later — is that Will is actually an Army officer who is working undercover to locate his missing brother, or find the people who are responsible for his disappearance and the disappearance of a load of Army rifles.
The personal relationships are complex, even if the basic plot isn’t. All does not end well. You know, like in real life.
This new edition of THE MAN FROM LARAMIE is part of Leisure Books’ “The Classic Film Collection” of Western titles. Others in the series include DESTRY RIDES AGAIN — and if you know only the film, give the novel a try and you’ll see how very different they are — THE SEARCHERS and THE UNFORGIVEN, which is not related to the Clint Eastwood Oscar-winner.
These are all first-rate samples of older Westerns that will repay your time and money. I hope Leisure continues this series and includes some titles down the road that are by writers they don’t already publish. —Doug Bentin
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Nice review. This Classic Film Series was a good idea from the outset. It’s easy to forget how many classic movies originated from books, especially when the books are out of print (and the filmmakers didn’t always place the “based on” credit very prominently).