This is reminding me of the Country Music threads of mine where I seemed to be talking to myself for the most part.

I just finished The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok by Richard Matheson.

I"ve read a lot of stuff written about ol' Wild Bill, fact and fiction. I've seen stories that have suggested he was self absorbed and cared only for himself and his image. I've seen stories suggesting he was capable of murder and I've seen stories emphasizing him as a hero.

This was published in 1996 and is the second one I;ve read suggesting he was a coward and a fraud. The problem here is this is the second novel I've read that followed this theme. I have the previous novel packed away in storage but I can't remember the name or the author but I do know that I read long before 1996 and the Matheson novel reads very similarly to the other.
In the first novel Hickok encounters John Wesley Hardin and discovers that Hardin is the same nervous wreck that he is from fear of being killed by someone who needs to make a name for themselves. In this novel Hardin is never even mentioned instead Hickok encounters Clay Halser and finds that Clay Halser is of a similar disposition as Hickok. Both novels depict Hickok's encounter with Calamity Jane as Hickok being appalled at what he sees.

Overall, I didn't enjoy it. I didn't enjoy the other novel either. If you feel the need to tear someone down and say there is some evidence that could support your position, then you should present your evidence.

At the beginning of the book Matheson acknowledges what he wrote might easily be a fantasy and says he does not wish to offend historians who might disagree.

P.S. he also never touches on Hickok's friendship with Buffalo Bill Cody.

It's been awhile, but I've read a couple of Matheson's Westerns. One of them, Journal of the Gun Years, is quite excellent. It's presented as the journal of a Wild Bill-like character who gradually builds up a reputation as a skilled gunman over the years. The theme of the book isn't original, but the characterization of the main character is done very well.

Well he's supposed to have won a Spur award, I think for the book you mentioned. I just recently read Matheson's "Incredible Shrinking Man" which was accompanied by several recognizable short stories that were made into Twilight Zone episodes or movies. But this book about Wild Bill just didn't do anything for me.

He isn't the only author who's written fiction about a historical figure where you look up and say "huh?" when you're done reading it. Matt Braun has a series of books about a character named Luke Starbuck and the one I've read has his "hero" going undercover to try to take down the Earp brothers. He does this by pretending to romance Earp's sister and getting close to the family. Toward the end of the book Braun's imaginary main character has pistol whipped and stalked Earp around the country warning him not to try anything shady. Basically harrassing Wyatt Earp throughout the years.

Not a western, but Matheson's World War II novel The Beardless Warriors is one of the best combat novels I've ever read.

Finally, after a mediocre Western, an absolutely atrocious Western and a Western that appalled me because of an agenda to destroy a legends reputation under the guise of fiction without giving source material to back it up, I read one that I thoroughly enjoyed: Alan LeMay's The Unforgiven.

This book was excellent and probably better then the movie that was based on it given some of the production problems the film had according to Wiki.

The story is about the seige of a homestead by Kiowa warriors due to the daughter of the household being a Kiowa foundling the family raised as their own. Very tense and well written.

The Funeral Of Tanner Moody - by several authors probably edited by Robert J. Randisi.

This is a collaboration effort by several authors to tell stories about the character Tanner Moody.

The conceit is that Tanner Moody has passed away and a wake is being held for him at the White Elephant saloon. Bat Masterson is about to embark on the second phase of his journalistic career and decides to gather stories about Tanner Moody from guests at the wake for a series of articles when he starts his career in New York.

Tanner Moody is supposed to be a legend on par with Masterson who has managed to live a full life and died of natural causes. Masterson manages to meet several different people who have been impacted in different ways by Moody.

Randisi writes a short framing sequence series of vignettes that preface each story and delivers the final story as well relating Bat Masterson's own encounter with Moody which also involves Butch Cassidy.

Contributors include : John Jakes, Elmer Kelton, Peter Brandvold, Jory Sherman and others.

Chiefs And Generals which examines the many of the major players in the Indian wars.

O.O. Howard was a huge hypocrite and odds are his proclaimed Christianity didn't save him from his niche in hell.

The Outlaw Josey Wales by Forrest Carter (aka Asa Earl Carter)

This is the novel that the Clint Eastwood movie is based on and is just as good as the film. In fact the film is very faithful to the novel.

It comes with some surprising revelations (for me anyway). It turns out the author, prior to his literary career was a white supremacist with the KKK and a former speechwriter for George Wallace.
He clearly had some kind of epiphany in his later life because as Forrest Carter he tried to claim he was of Cherokee descent and was very understanding of the plight of native Americans in his novels. Though he was still living a lie by not owning up to his hate filled past.
Oprah Winfrey even endorsed one of his novels until she discovered the truth about the man.

I would like to read his other novels which include a Josey Wales sequel.

Perhaps if he'd lived longer he might have been able to come to terms with the huge contradictions in his life and acknowledged his early life of hate.

He might have been a rare case of a man who was successfully exorcising his demons.

I just finally read The Searchers by Alan LeMay.

I've been wanting to read this ever since I concluded the movie is the best thing John Wayne ever did.
Excellent read though the ending was different the I was expecting.

How Alan LeMay isn't as recognizable as Louis L'Amour is beyond me.

Well, he wasn't anywhere near as prolific. His books are excellent, though.

His stuff is more like classic literature I think.

Just read the second Josey Wales novel The Vengeance Trail Of Josey Wales which apparently Clint Eastwood was planning to do as a movie but apparently due to Forrest Carter's death, plans fell through. (It's possible Forrest Carter's dark past may have derailed it as well.)

In this one, folks who helped Josey avoid a confrontation with Texas Rangers suffer at the hands of a band of Mexican Rurales that have forayed into Texas for ill purposes. One of them is taken alive to be hung as a horse thief in Mexico to justify the mission and attempt to increase the political ambitions of the Captain of the Rurales.
Josey finds out what happens and goes after the Rurales and get an eye for eye and possibly save his friend from hanging.

The adventure leads to an unusual encounter with Geronimo.

Just finished my first Max Brand western. Leisure Western has released a series called The Classic Film Collection a series of books that inspired famous movies. I've got them all except Alan LeMay's Unforgiven which I already had as an older edition.

This one was Destry Rides Again and I can see why Max Brand is touted as one of the best.
In the novel we see Destry learn a lot about himself in the course of the events that he deals with. You actually see him grow wiser.

Apparently there were three Destry movies and none of them were true to the book.

The Jimmy Stewart version of Destry is a great movie in its own right, though.

You should read Brand's Whistlin' Dan Barry trilogy: "Untamed," "The Night Horsemen," and "The Seventh Man."

I've gotten my hands on several other Max Brand Westerns.

They are:
Luck
Wheel Of Fortune
Bad Man's Gulch
Rancher's Legacy
Crossroads
The City in The Sky
The Black Rider