"Sudden" fans - step on in

[xl_target]

Oliver Strange created the "Sudden" series of books:

James Green aka Sudden is a fictional character created by the author Oliver Strange and after his death carried on by Frederick H. Christian. The books are centred around a gunfighter in the American Wild West era, who is in search of two men who cheated his foster father. Jim the young man promises his dying father that he will find the two and take revenge. He gives the name James Green to himself and in time gets accused of a robbery himself and becomes an outlaw.

The books were first published around the late 1920s and the early 1930s. They featured vivid descriptions of the western American landscape, rare in an author at that time. These book have been out of print for a very long time, and are currently available for purchase only in paper format, after being owned by one of more people.

Since the copyright has expired on these books, they are now available on the net. Guess what? I have found a place that allows you to read all the Oliver Strange books online.

The link is HERE. Enjoy!

[essdee1972]

Know the funny part? Strange never visited the USA! He stayed in London and wrote the books based on descriptions of the Wild West that he read!! The particular genre is called "Picadilly Western". (Source: Wikipedia).

[Vikram]

I did read the entire series both by Strange and Christian. Very enjoyable series.

XL, thanks for the link and that page also offers the entire Louis L'Amour collection! I think I read all his books.

Best-
Vikram

[hvj1]

Thanks XL
My first western was the Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey supposed to be a classic. But in my opinion ZG with all due respects to him was not a patch on Louis L'Amour.

My Father was a great fan of James Green, one of the greatest lines that I still remember runs as follows;

'Here's to yella, yella gold, yella hair and to hell with Green!

"My name is Green, perhaps you didn't know that, said the saturnine figure at the bar.

Eventually 'Whitey' the bad guy meets his end, going for his right but actually drawing the left revolver.

I owe all my writing (Yeah! Yeah! I have left the Gunfighter Trail incomplete, i will i will friends) inspiration to the Oliver Strange, Frederick Christian, Max Brand but above all to the Great Loius L'Amour.

There is one another lover of westerns amongst us. Ckkalyan, no doubt we shall soon hear from him.


Regards

[xl_target]

I did read the entire series both by Strange and Christian. Very enjoyable series.

XL, thanks for the link and that page also offers the entire Louis L'Amour collection! I think I read all his books.

Best-
Vikram

I did too Vikram. The series was really popular when I was in school. I still remember a sixth grade teacher at Bishop Cotton's, Bangalore explaining the theory of relativity to us; "if Sudden took an auto rickshaw and they went really fast, as they approached the speed of light their mass would decrease and as they hit the speed of light, they would appear to disappear".
I've read most of Louis L'amour, Max Brand and Zane Grey too.

hvj1, I was thinking of you and CK when I posted this.

[mundaire]

If any of you use mobipocket/ kindle or any ebook reader you can also download the Sudden series in mobi format from http://anonym.to/?http://www.mediafire. ... j5a267anpd

AND can download the complete collection of Louis L'Amour from http://rapidgator.net/file/35532573/louislam.rar.html



HTH

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[Grumpy]

There have been - and probably still are - a few British writers that wrote cowboy novels. I suspect that it`s a dying genre because there are no cowboy TV series any more and very few `Western` movies. If the kids don`t see them, how are they supposed to know about them ? Things have changed so much since I was a kid.

[essdee1972]

HVJ1, with you there!! L'Amour was the best. Probably because he actually camped out rough, solo-ing it across the territory he wrote about, talking to people, soaking in the atmosphere. Have you read his sports fiction, mostly about boxing or school / college football? He puts a lot of boxing in his westerns, too.

I tried the "Western" bookshelf on gutenberg.org. Had heard a lot about Max Brand, BM Bower, etc. But most of the stories came out as love stories in a Western setting, that too with mostly deux-ex-machina endings (as if the guy ran out of paper and realised that he had only 3 sheets to finish the story)!! Even Sudden has deux-ex-machines, but then these duexes don't get him the gal, but his very life!

What's the Wild West without a few snap shots, duels, cattle rustling, horseback chases, Indian fights???

XL, I heard L'Amour's Sackett series is on the telly in the US? Have you watched it?

Mundaire, thanks a lot!! Now I hope the Kindle app on my Android can read the books!

Grumpy, I don't want to be politically incorrect, but if the last cowboy story you had out of Hollywood is "Brokeback Mountain", where would the kids get their inspiration from? Thank God my kid loves the background scores by Morricone! Now to get him hooked onto L'Amour!

[dev]

Thanks XL and Mundaire.
But I liked Louis L'Amour more than the Sudden series.
Loved reading about the survival parts and all.
By the way was JT Edsons' stuff on the black powder loads correct?
He used to get into a lot of detail about it all.

[Vikram]

XL, I think I read almost all of the Zane Grey and Max Brand books too.My one complaint about Zane Grey is that he describes the landscape and the scenery for pages on and it really starts irritating me.

L'Amour was easily most popular of the Western genre and rightly so. However, he became quite repetitive with the later books.

For me, one writer whose understanding of the West was matched by a top notch literary prowess was E.M.Rhodes. He was just brilliant. If any of you Western genre enthusiasts come across his works, please do pick them up.I am positive you will enjoy reading them.

Owen Wister is pretty much the father of the genre.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Manlove_Rhodes

A.B.Guthrie Jr. was another fantastic writer who wrote of both modern and the Wild West. His understanding and historical accuracy is second to none and so is his ability to tell a story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.B._Guthrie,_Jr.

Bret Harte was not bad either.So is Elmore Leonard.


As Grumpy says, it is a dying genre. If they don't write and produce films and T.V. Shows, how are the kids going to learn about them?

Best-
Vikram

[ckkalyan]

Wow! I found this 'suddenly' after one whole year!

Thanks for starting this xl_target and other western fans for chipping in with your comments. Made amazing reading!

essdee1972

The Quick and The Dead by LL is here on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDpElxGVngI

Crossfire Trail is here by LL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zcFetHJ7G8

Gunfight (clip only ) between Tyrel Sackett and Reed Carney https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur29Mg8bELw

Monte Walsh by Jack Schaefer is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r0fBbT ... L&index=12

[brihacharan]

Thanks Guys!
You have taken me to an "Era" that has led me to feel that "I have been a victim of Time Warp"
Most of us have been weaned on the stories of the wild west, some of which have been made into Hollywood Blockbusters...
Gunfight at OK Corral, Last Train from Gun Hill, Broken Arrow, Billy the Kid, Big Country et-al......
Thanks xl_target for the links....you've made my day!!!



Have a Great Week-End
Briha

[essdee1972]

Re-reading these posts made me want to hear this music....... Morricone the maestro playing the famous soundtrack live!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux0vyv7dEGk

[ckkalyan]

Found some fabulous old-time western mini series on YouTube - Enjoy!

Into the West:
[youtube][/youtube]

Broken Trail:
[youtube][/youtube]

Lonesome Dove, Commanche Moon and some others are also available.

Open Range (Kevin Costner, Robert Duval):
[youtube][/youtube]

[ckkalyan]

Here is another movie based on one of Louis L'amour's short stories - very poignant, different - coming of age, confusion; even ruthless outlaws have a heart! A sort of Mills and Boon Western?!

[youtube][/youtube]