Gene Autry And The Thief River Outlaws

Gene Autry

by Navigator Bob Hamilton, Dan Muller (Illustrator)

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

Genres: Westerns, Collections

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1944

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a curious Western published by Whitman in 1944. The protagonist is Gene Autry, who was the star of nearly a hundred Western films from the 1930s through the '50s, as well as having his own television show, and owning the California Angels, and arguably being more successful as a musician than he was an actor, etc. In this novel he's the 19th century good-guy cowboy role he played, not a 20th century actor-musician, but he's referred to as "Gene Autry," both names, almost exclusively throughout the book. No mention is made of him singing, but his horse is named Champion, just like the majority of his films. It's a pretty standard Western, in which a man named Farnsworth has contracted with the railroad to construct a bridge over Thief River Canyon. A couple of unscrupulous criminals, Hind and Marsden, sabotage his efforts and injure him, because they want the contract to default to them. Gene Autry arrives on the scene, investigates the situation and solves the mystery, and sees to it that the brigands get their just desserts. (Was that a spoiler? Did you really think the black-hats could win out in a 1944 Western for kids? C'mon...) It's a little long for a kids' book from the time, but it was a clever mystery and a good story. It demonstrates Gene Autry's Cowboy Code, the Ten Commandants for Cowboys, featured on Gene Autry's Melody Ranch, a popular CBS radio program 1940 - '56. (Champion had his own radio and television shows, too, by the way.) Here they are:
1.) The Cowboy must never shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage.

2.) He must never go back on his word, or a trust confided in him.

3.) He must always tell the truth.

4.) He must be gentle with children, the elderly, and animals.

5.) He must not advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas.

6.) He must help people in distress.

7.) He must be a good worker.

8.) He must keep himself clean in thought, speech, action, and personal habits.

9.) He must respect women, parents, and his nation's laws.

10.) The Cowboy is a patriot.

[John Peel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gene comes to the rescue of a team building a railway bridge over the Thief River. They've been having bad luck - but is it bad luck or sabotage? Another fun adventure for fans of the cowboy hero and his horse, Champion. Pretty well written, with lots of action.

[Sue Schleeter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely loved it,

[Larry Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is from 1944 which makes it when my dad would've been 9 years old. I found it with a lot of his other stuff and finally decided to read it. For those of you old enough to have watched the Gene Autry films or tv shows, this book is fairly close to being like them. It has the same type of humor and action that is seen in those shows. However, it does leave out his singing or even mentioning his singing. The most annoying thing I found with the book is that a lot of times instead of referring to him as Gene or Mr. Autry, etc., they use an abundance of Gene Autry. This is a sample of what I mean, "Much to Gene Autry's disgust..." and "Gene Autry shook his head slowly". Maybe this is sort of typical for this type of book back at that time, but I found it distracting.

[Robert Luebke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gene Autry and the Thief River Outlaws was a book that I had recovered from my parent's farmhouse after their passing. Since the book was written in 1944, the year I was born, I thought I would read the book to compare how writing has changed in over 60 years. However, I became so interested in the story that I started and finished the book today. Just like many of the early Westerns, good wins over evil!

[John Burgess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nostalgia read. First read when I was 7 or 8.