This is a pulp that I own and read recently. That’s my copy in the scan. I’m not sure who did the cover painting. Sam Cherry and Kirk Wilson both did a lot of covers for Thrilling Group Western pulps during this era, but to me that doesn’t quite look like the work of either of them. But I could certainly be wrong about that. What’s a little unusual is that the cover actually illustrates a scene from the lead novella, “Sundown Basin” by Ray Townsend. That could just be a coincidence, since a hanging is a pretty generic scene for a Western. But maybe not. Either way, it worked out well.
I don’t know anything about Ray Townsend except that he wrote almost 80 stories
for various Western pulps in a career that lasted only six years from 1948 to
1954. He also published half a dozen Western novels, all from Popular Library
(also owned by Ned Pines, who owned the Thrilling Group pulps), including
SUNDOWN BASIN (1955), expanded from the novella of the same name in this issue
of THRILLING WESTERN.
The protagonist of this yarn is Will Roman, a transplanted Texan who’s the
foreman of a Montana ranch started by an old rancher from the Lone Star State. Will
and his two best friends have a Three Musketeers (or Mesquiteers) sort of
friendship until one of them up and gets engaged to the old rancher’s beautiful
adopted daughter, who Will intended to marry when the time came. Adding to that
tension is the fact that rustlers have been scavenging the range, and the leading
suspect, who almost gets strung up at the beginning of the story, is married to
a beautiful blonde Will also has feelings for. Townsend does an excellent job
with this romantic rectangle, although at times it does seem to make this story
more of a candidate for RANCH ROMANCES. “Sundown Basin” is a little light on
action, but it’s suspenseful, the characterizations are very good, and Will
Roman is a likable protagonist. I enjoyed this one a lot.
I don’t know anything about Fred Delano except that he published eight short
stories in various Western pulps in 1952 and ’53. “The Fears and Albie North”
is a coming-of-age story about a down-on-his-luck young man who falls in with
bad company. It’s pretty lightweight but certainly a readable yarn.
I’ve seen Rod Patterson’s name on many Western pulp TOCs and on several Ace
Double Western novels. Between the late Thirties and the late Fifties, he published
a couple of hundred stories in the pulps, nearly all of them Westerns, the
early stories in collaboration with longtime pulpster Kenneth Fowler. I don’t
recall ever reading anything by him until now. “Tiger on the Range” is listed
as a novelette, but it’s almost as long as Townsend’s “full-length novel”, so
it’s actually more of a novella. The plot is a pretty common one for both
Westerns and hardboiled novels: an ex-con, sent to prison for a crime he didn’t
commit (in this case, gunning down his own brother, his rival for the girl both
loved) returns home determined to stir up trouble and find out who really
killed his brother. In something of a rarity for a Western pulp, at least in my
experience, Patterson includes a lengthy flashback giving the details of this
back-story. There’s also some rustling going on. Isn’t there always? This story
sags a little in the middle as the protagonist spends a lot of time just riding
around, chasing and being chased, but then there’s a nice plot twist and a
satisfactory ending. Patterson has a nice terse style, and I think I probably
need to dig out one of the Ace Doubles by him that I have around here somewhere.
Ben Smith is another writer who did a few Ace Double Western novels, but other
than that I don’t know anything about him. His short-short “The Trail to Rocca
Flat” is about some outlaws who have a falling out over the loot from their
last job. It’s okay, readable but nothing special.
Finally we have “Lawman Without a Badge” by an obscure author named Vic
Whitman. According to the Fictionmags Index, Vic Whitman wrote more than sixty
sports and detective yarns, many of them in the pulp TOP-NOTCH, between the
mid-Twenties and the mid-Thirties. Then there are no more Vic Whitman stories
until two Westerns in the mid-Fifties. Same guy? I don’t know. But this story,
about a young man who becomes a temporary deputy and takes the job more seriously
than anybody expects, is pretty darned good.
There are also a few features and articles I didn’t read. I usually glance at
them to see if there’s anything particularly interesting, but really, I’m just
there for the fiction. And it’s worth reading in this issue of THRILLING
WESTERN, not a bad story in the bunch. Not a great one, either, but that’s
okay. Still fun to read.
3 comments:
Filling in a few biographical details:
Ray Townsend is Californian Homer R. Townsend (1917-1955). Explains why he stopped writing in 1954.
Rod Patterson is probably Rodney L. Patterson of New York. From here
Vic Whitman(1901-1981) obit here. Same person, obit mentions restarted writing for magazines after 40s.
Ben A. Smith(1915-??) was born in Michigan. Self-taught radio engineer, worked as cattleman in Oklahoma and field hand in Missouri.
Many thanks for this information! I wondered if Townsend passed away in the mid-Fifties, since his writing stopped so abruptly. Some people just walk away from it, but not many. Glad to have confirmation about Vic Whitman's career, too, and I plan to read more by Patterson and Smith.
Apparently the last issue of TW.
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