The Texican

by Dane Coolidge, Maynard Dixon

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148 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1975

About the author

Dane Coolidge was born in Natick, Massachusetts, on March 24, 1873. He was brought up in Riverside, California, and received his higher education at Stanford and Harvard Universities. From 1895 to 1900 he was a field collector of mammals, birds and reptiles in Nevada, Arizona and Southern California for a number of institutions, including Stanford University, the British Museum, U. S. National Zoological Park, and the U. S. National Museum in Italy and France. On July 30, 1906, he married Nary Roberts, and the couple eventually made their home in Berkeley, California. In 1910, his first novel, Hidden Water, was published, and this was followed by a long succession of novels and some non-fiction, with California and Southwest locales. He and his wife collaborated on two books, The Navajo Indians (1930) and The Last of the Seris (1939). In addition, Coolidge contributed short stories and illustrated articles to several magazines, including Youth's Companion, Sunset, Redbook, Harper's and Country Life in America. Mr. Coolidge died in 1940; Mrs. Coolidge, in 1945.

Reviews

[David Mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the true populist spirit of its time, Coolidge’s ‘The Texican’ pits the ‘little man’ against the ‘big’, and brings him out on top. With that same wry humor and political satire later perfected by New Mexico Cowboy Chronicler, Eugene Manlove Rhodes, Coolidge offers us a richly authentic portrait of the Southwestern cattle puncher before the Romantic stereotypes of the 20’s skewed him beyond recognition.

Coolidge’s first-hand knowledge of the subject matter is evident on every page. More importantly, you can tell he had fun writing it: The narrative ploughs ahead in tongue-in-cheek fashion; never taking itself too seriously, and without so much as a gunshot fired.

This is a Western novel as it should be. Witty, empathetic and honest.

Being a product of its time, there are drawbacks. There are racial epithets in this book that grated me. There are other contemporaries of Coolidge who didn’t resort to racism -they are much to be admired. However, if you can situate Coolidge in his time and place and see beyond his prejudices, he has otherwise crafted something well worth reading.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This early cowboy western is a rollicking political satire, the likes of which a reader would find difficult to duplicate in a western novel today. The Texican of the title is a freelance cattle rustler, Pecos Dalhart, who fetches up in Arizona, where he gets involved in a feud between two rival cattlemen, Ike Crittendon and John Upton.

Crittendon hires Pecos to alter the brands on any of Upton’s cattle he finds on the range. Meanwhile, the local sheriff, Boone Morgan, is alert to any signs of cattle theft, and when Crittendon falsely accuses Pecos of stealing a cow, he gets hauled in to the county jail, to await trial...

Read my review at my blog.

[Ernest Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A real find. Not your typical early western. A cowboy reads a strange newspaper called the Voice of Reason and gets ideas about how he's being opressed by the "capitalistic classes" as decided start a revolution. That an a brand-altering rustling scheme land him in jail, thanks his dishonest bosses. But it's funny and there's a happy ending--he even learns that Mexicans aren't so bad, especially this one girl . . . Gotta track down more Dane Coolidge.