Wed 16 Sep 2009
Archived Western Review: LAURAN PAINE – The Running Iron.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western Fiction[5] Comments
LAURAN PAINE – The Running Iron.
Five Star, hardcover; first edition, November 2000. Leisure, paperback reprint; 1st printing, April 2002.
Lauran Paine isn’t a household name, but over the past 50 years he’s been a small powerhouse in the world of traditional westerns. His overall output, including mysteries and romances, includes over 1000 books published, many only in England, under nearly 100 pseudonyms.
One difference between Paine and his younger contemporaries is that he’s lived closer to the time period he writes about, rather than learning about it second-hand. The characters in his stories are taciturn and close-mouthed. They don’t feel obliged to talk about what they’re thinking, what they’re doing or why. Newer writers seem to explain everything. Paine shows and often doesn’t tell.
In this story, after Old Joe Jessup dies, his ranch is left to May, his Indian wife, and his adopted son, Little Joe. A neighboring rancher wouldn’t mind adding the land to his own spread. Can one boy, an old woman, and an even more ancient hired hand manage to hold on without him?
In close conjunction to this, the army is called in to move a small tribe of Indians, May’s extended family, onto a reservation. In terms of action, there’s very little. Each chapter moves six inches forward, then five to ten inches back. The end result is a book that’s both frustrating and captivating.
[UPDATE] 09-16-09. This review appeared for the first time in a newsletter for the Historical Novel Society soon after the hardcover came out, and before Lauran Paine died in 2001. As I noted above, I reprinted it later in my western fiction apazine, where I didn’t do any rewriting, nor have I now.
Some of the names Paine wrote under, besides his own, are (take a deep breath) John Armour, Reg Batchelor, Kenneth Bedford, Frank Bosworth, Mark Carrel, Robert Clarke, Richard Dana, J F Drexler, Troy Howard, Jared Ingersol, John Kilgore, Hunter Liggett, J K Lucas, and John Morgan.
I haven’t done any counting, so I don’t know if the list of titles is complete at either Web location — there certainly doesn’t seem to be over a few hundred at either one — but at least you can find partial bibliographies on Wikipedia and the Fantastic Fiction site, the latter with many covers.
September 16th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
What Paine manages is to write very stripped down, almost classical western plots. Without comparing his work to Shane or The Ox-Bow Incident what he did is to take those same very simple stories and explore them in depth putting character ahead of plot and action.
And as you say too often today writers in the western and other genres seem to feel their characters shouldn’t have an unexpressed thought or emotion, as if readers had forgotten how to find those things for themselves through characters actions and dialogue.
September 16th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
For a longer list of the pen-names, try here:
http://www.trussel.com/books/pseud_p.htm
This site figures Paine came second in its top ten for pseudonyms, with 68.
For David Whitehead’s interesting and very fair look at his life and work, try here:
http://www.blackhorsewesterns.com/bhe4
Paine’s chief outlet for his westerns was for much of his career, of course, Robert Hale Ltd, publishers of the hardcover library series Black Horse Westerns.
September 16th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Keith
Both links are extremely useful, thanks!, especially David’s very good — and honest — assessment of his work.
As for the first one, well, here goes:
[Ray Ainsbury, Roy Ainsbury, Ray Ainsworth, Roy Ainsworth, Clay Allen, Rosa Almonte, A.A. Andrews, John Armour, Kathleen Bartlett, Reg Batchelor, Harry Beck, Kenneth Bedford, Will Benton, Frank Bosworth, Ruth Bovee, Will Bradford, Concho Bradley, Will Brennan, Mark Carrel(l), Nevada Carter, Claude Cassidy, Badger Clark, Richard Clarke, Robert Clarke, Clint Custer, Amber Dana, Richard Dana, Audrey Davis, J.F. Drexler, Antoinette Duchesne, John Durham, Margot Fisher, Betty Fleck, Joni Frost, Donn Glendenning, James Glenn, Angela Gordon, Beth Gorman, Francis Hart, Jay Hayden, Helen Holt, Will Houston, Elizabeth Howard, Troy Howard, John Hunt, Jared Ingersol, Ray Kelley, Jack Ketchum, John Kilgore, Hunter Liggett, J.K. Lucas, Buck Lyon, Bruce Martin, Tom Martin, Angela Morgan, Arlene Morgan, Frank Morgan, John Morgan, Valerie Morgan, Clint O’Connor, Helen Sharp, Jim Slaughter, Arthur St. George, Buck Standish, Margaret Stuart, Buck Thompson, Barbara Thorn, P.F. Undine]
September 18th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Kevin Costner’s recent western film – OPEN RANGE – was based on a Paine story. The film lasts for three hours, though!
September 18th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I wonder if they added scenes for the overseas version. In the US its running time is only 2 hours and 20 minutes (according to IMBD).
Where I went to see if there were only other films based on Paine’s novel, and I found only one other, a 1957 western called THE QUIET GUN based on a book called LAW MAN. The stars are Forrest Tucker, Mara Corday, Jim Davis, Kathleen Crowley and Lee Van Cleef.
It’s been shown on the Western Channel, according to one commenter, so it shouldn’t be hard to find, even though there’s no official DVD release that I can find.
People who left comments all call it above average, so maybe it’s worth looking for.
Says one person: “Forrest Tucker gives an interesting understated, ‘quiet’ performance, Lee Van Cleef chews up the scenery, and the (usually unwelcome) comic relief works (surprisingly) well.”