Fri 7 Jul 2017
Western Review: REESE SULLIVAN – Deadly Like a .45.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western Fiction[11] Comments
REESE SULLIVAN – Deadly Like a .45. Ace Double M-140, paperback original; 1st printing, 1966. Published back-to-back with Last Stage to Gomorrah, by Barry Cord.
The first story by Giles A Lutz (1910-1982) to have been published in the western pulp magazines may have been “Square in the Saddle,” which appeared in the July 1945 issue of Western Story Magazine. (Thanks to the online Western Fiction Index for this information.)
From the mid-50s on, according to his entry on Wikipedia, Lutz not only wrote under his own name, but he also used Wade Everett, Alex Hawk, Hunter Ingram, Reese Sullivan, and Gene Thompson as bylines for the huge amount of western fiction he produced, mostly in the form of paperback novels.
Even though it barely qualifies as a novel — Deadly Like a .45 is only 132 pages long, and there’s only one story line — it’s a good one, and in it, it’s up to Gard Hubach, deputy marshal for a small town in eastern Oregon, to be one of the few to stand up for what’s right.
It’s this way. Breck Costigan, owner of the large ranch not far out of town figures he owns the whole town as well, and when a small farmer rustles one of his cattle, he thinks nothing of having his crew break him out of jail for a good old-fashioned lynching.
The sheriff is in Costigan’s pocket. The only one who will stand with Gard is Dolph Emery, the town blacksmith. The only other important character is Emery’s daughter, Martha. Lutz writing as as Reese Sullivan manages to wring all of the drama out of this fairly standard set-up and make the reader wish for more.
It’s also a dark, violent tale on more than one occasion, surprisingly so. Short, and while not a deep story, nonetheless an effective one.
PostScript: The other half of this Ace Double, a story by Barry Cord, a pen name of Peter Germano, also a western pulp writer of some standing, is not nearly as successful. The length is the same, and both the plot and the number of characters are a lot more ambitious, but what it boils down to is this: A stagecoach carrying a fortune in gold disappears and a mine played out long ago suddenly starts producing high grade ore again. Much action ensues, but only in peripheral over-busy fashion.
July 7th, 2017 at 6:56 pm
This sounds enjoyable. I’ve never read it.
One Western historian says that “lone hero cleans up town” is the most archetypal and popular Western plot.
Anti-lynching themes are also big.
I like Ace Doubles, and novellas in general. They tend to have less padding.
July 7th, 2017 at 7:50 pm
For my recent flight back to CT from L.A., I brought with me two Ace Doubles, one a western, the other science fiction, and a third paperback, a vintage mystery adventure from Lancer. Finished the western double, half the SF double, and got halfway through the mystery novel. Which so far, isn’t very good, but it’s good enough to finish.
I had to get up earlier than usual to make the flight, so I also took several naps.
July 7th, 2017 at 8:50 pm
IMHO, American Literature would be improved, if they passed a law stating “For every novel published, the publishers also have to put out a collection of novellas”.
July 7th, 2017 at 9:19 pm
The novella seems lost or forgotten, but always welcome.
July 8th, 2017 at 10:36 am
Extremely affecting were a group of three sold as unit called Sermons and Soda Water by John O’Hara. Not to be missed. In fact, not much of Mr. O’Hara’s work is less than compulsively readable.
July 8th, 2017 at 8:38 pm
Barry,
Agree on O’Hara, who was an influence on MacDonald apparently. He’s too little read today, especially in the shorter form.
I’ve long held the novella is the ideal length for genre fiction, unfortunately a difficult length to anthologize. Quite a few writers including Gardner, Stout, and Charteris did some of their best work in novella form.
July 8th, 2017 at 10:44 pm
We’ve gone far away from Giles Lutz and pulp level western fiction here, but why not.
Here’s a quote from Wikipedia I think is relevant:
“O’Hara may not have been the best story writer of the twentieth century, but he is the most addictive,” wrote Loren Stein, editor in chief of the Paris Review, in a 2013 appreciation of O’Hara’s work, adding, “You can binge on his collections the way some people binge on Mad Men, and for some of the same reasons. On the topics of class, sex, and alcohol—that is, the topics that mattered to him—his novels amount to a secret history of American life.”
July 8th, 2017 at 10:50 pm
Interesting quote Steve. Ernest Hemingway called him the real F. Scott Fitzgerald. Despite an extensive film presence, not one captured, or was even half way true to the original, and including Butterfield 8 and From The Terrace, which I think is the Gone With The Wind of contemporary America, that is, the twentieth century. And the conclusion is similarly complex.
July 8th, 2017 at 11:35 pm
Barry, I have found the article on O’Hara that the quote came from:
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/he-told-the-truth-about-his-time
July 8th, 2017 at 11:10 pm
I’ve read much of John O’Hara’s fiction and like his work quite a bit. His long novels are good but his best work was in the shorter form, especially the novella length. I have an excellent collection of 10 of his novellas titled THE NOVELLAS OF JOHN O’HARA. The Library of America recently honored him with a collection of his stories.
July 9th, 2017 at 12:06 am
Steve, thank you. Fran Lebowitz, and I should have known.