White Indians

The Floating Outfit #19

by J.T. Edson

Morton Lewis was part Indian … which meant that the only way the land-grabbers could take his ranch from him was to kill him … and the killing had to seem to be legal …But Mort’s grandfather was a Comanche war chief, and if a Comanche brave should be killed, those savage warriors would ride to avenge him and in so doing trigger off an uprising that could ravage the State of Texas …Two young men rode to avert the trouble. One was the Rio Hondo gun wizard, Dusty Fog. The other was, like Mort, part Comanche. Mostly he was known as the Ysabel Kid. But there were some who called him a White Indian …John Thomas Edson (February 17 1928, died July 17 2014 ) JT Edson was a former British Army dog-handler who wrote more than 130 Western novels, accounting for some 27 million sales in paperback.Edson's works - produced on a word processor in an Edwardian semi at Melton Mowbray - contain clear, crisp action in the traditions of B-movies and Western television series. What they lack in psychological depth is made up for by at least 12 good fights per volume . Each portrays a vivid, idealised "West That Never Was", at a pace that rarely slackens.His authentic descriptions of 19th-century weapons, his interest in what causes a gun to jam and in the mechanics of cheating at cards enjoyed a strong following, especially among serving British soldiers. But his accounts of catfights involving women punching, scratching and biting as they tear the clothes off each other in the mud, did not appeal to the new breed of feminist publishing executives. Others pointed out that a young man sent to Broadmoor for killing a Sunday School teacher claimed to have modelled himself on Edson's hero, the half-Comanche, half-Irish Ysabel Kid. There was also the novel The Hooded Riders (1968), which portrayed an organisation resembling the Ku Klux Klan as a heroic resistance group.John Thomas Edson was born at Worksop, Nottinghamshire, on February 17 1928, the son of a miner who was killed in an accident when John was nine. He left Shirebrook Selective Central School at 14 to work in a stone quarry and joined the Army four years later.As a sergeant in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, Edson served in Kenya during the Emergency, on one occasion killing five Mau Mau on patrol. He started writing in Hong Kong, and when he won a large cash prize in a tombola he invested in a typewriter.On coming out of the Army after 12 years with a wife and children to support, Edson learned his craft while running a fish-and-chip shop and working on the production line at a local pet food factory. His efforts paid off when Trail Boss (1961) won second prize in a competition with a promise of publication and an outright payment of £50.The publishers offered £25 more for each subsequent book, and with the addition of earnings from serial-writing for the comic Victor, Edson was able to settle down to professional authorship. When the comic's owners decided that nobody read cowboy stories any more, he was forced to get a job as a postman (the job had the by-product of enabling him to lose six stone in weight from his original 18).Edson's prospects improved when Corgi Books took over his publisher, encouraged him to produce seven books a year and promised him royalties for the first time. In 1974 he made his first visit to the United States, to which he was to return regularly in search of reference books. He declared that he had no desire to live in the Wild West, "I've never even been on a horse. I've seen those things, and they look highly dangerous at both ends and bloody uncomfortable in the middle. My only contact was to shoot them for dog meat."His heroes were often based on his favourite film stars, so that Dusty Fog resembled Audie Murphy, and the Ysabel Kid was an amalgam of Elvis Presley in Flaming Star and Jack Buetel in The Outlaw.

Genres: Westerns

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 8, 1982

About the author

John Thomas Edson is an English writer of Westerns.

He was born in 1928.He was obsessed with Westerns from an early age and often "rewrote" cowboy movies that he had seen at the cinema. One thing that always intrigued him was the minutiae—how did the baddie's gun jam? What were the mechanics of cheating at cards? How did Westerners really dress and speak?

His writing was helped to develop by a schoolteacher who encouraged him. Now lives in Leicester, Leicestershire.[citation needed]

During his 20s and 30s, Edson served in His Majesty's Armed Forces for 12 years as a Dog Trainer. Cooped up in barracks for long periods, he devoured books by the great escapist writers (Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert McCraig, Nelson C. Nye and Edgar Wallace). He also sat through hours of movies starring John Wayne, Randolph Scott, Errol Flynn and his all-time favourite, Audie Murphy.

His first appearance in print was "Hints On Self-Preservation when attacked by a War Dog" in the Osnabrück camp magazine Shufti in 1947. Acquiring a typewriter in the early 1950s and putting it to good use while posted to Hong Kong, by the time of his discharge he had written 10 Westerns, an early version of Bunduki and the first of the short detective-type stories starring Waco.

Upon leaving HM forces, JT won second prize (with Trail Boss) in the Western division of a Literary Competition run by Brown & Watson Ltd, which led to the publication of 46 novels with them, becoming a major earner for the company.

He had the need for supplementary income from time-to-time and also served as a postman, and the proprietor of a fish 'n' chip shop. Furthermore, he branched out as a writer and wrote five series of short stories (Dan Hollick, Dog Handler) for the Victor boys papers, and wrote the "box captions" for comic strips, which instilled discipline and the ability to convey maximum information with minimum words.


His writing career forged ahead when he joined Corgi Books in the late '60s, which gave JT exposure through a major publishing house, as well as the opportunity to branch out from the core Westerns into the Rockabye County, the science-fiction hero Bunduki and other series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._T._Edson

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the names mentioned in these novels are real people.

That is where the similarity ends.

In many ways these are modern versions of the old dime novels. The only similarity to the truth are the fact that... The author mentions real people.

However if you just want to read an old fashion cowboy shoot em up, that's what these books are.

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

What could have been a really good story was ruined because it was a partial that was filled in. JTE said new information was found, Baloney. He was searching for an idea and utilized a partial he had previously written

[Graham Tallents · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I read this a little too soon after reading The Halfbreed. With that story still fresh in my mind, I found the plot and character changes a little unsettling. While the addition of a new heroine was enjoyable. the complete change of character by the mayor was a bit unbelievable.

[larry brashear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book!

A great Book somewhat lacking proper writing and editing. The adventure and it’s plot made up got the poor writing etc.,.

[Jacquie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the expanded version of the short story The Half Breed told in the novel of the same name. Half Comanche rancher Mort Lewis returns from acting as a hunting guide to find himself accused of murdering his neighbors. Knowing many in the town despise his mixed blood Mort flees to avoid being murdered himself. In this version of the story the Ysabel Kid and Dusty Fog have been sent to help Mort. Pursued by gunmen the Kid must venture deep into Comanche territory to get the evidence that will clear Mort. One of the best changes JT made between the short and long versions is that Mort's dog Pete is injured rather than killed by one of the gunmen. Annie Singing Bear makes a brief appearance though JT later gave her a book of her own Is-a-man or as it was reprinted Texas Warrior.