Western Reader's Guide: A Selected Bibliography of Nonfiction Magazines, 1953-91 by James A. Browning (Editor)

BookList

This work is only a personal-name index, suggesting that the book is mistitled. More specifically, it is an index to approximately 2,000 names of persons who were the subject of articles in nonfiction western magazines published 1953-91. The author does not give a list of the "more than two dozen" magazines from which the bibliography is compiled. However, a random selection of 100 titles found that 18 different periodicals were included, ranked as follows by the number of citations: "Real West", 15 percent; "True West", 14 percent; "Frontier Times", 12 percent; "Great West", 7 percent; and then 14 other titles, in decreasing order, down to "Big West", with only one percent. Only three titles of this genre are still published today: "True West" (the grandparent of the genre), "Old West", and "Wild West" The author explains his use of personal names by stating that this was "the most practical alternative to the impossibility of keeping index cards on every topic of every article ever published." Consequently, the work is only of value when a name is known. Popular topics such as camels in the West, barbed wire, guns and ammo, or even such a specific location or event as the Rock Creek Massacre cannot be located. This objection is weakened somewhat by the argument that anyone who wanted to look up the Rock Creek Massacre would probably know that Wild Bill Hickok was associated with it. But it is unlikely that the reader would also know that a less famous individual, Herman Good, was also connected, and so would miss a second article listed only under that name. No biographical data are provided about the individuals listed in the book, but the title of the citation is often a clue to the person's identity. For example, under the entry "Battey, Thomas C." is a citation to the "Real West" article "A Quaker Missionary among the Kiowas." Pseudonyms are cross-referenced to the real names (e.g., ""Buntline, Ned" see Judson, Edward Z. C.") Even though this work provides only access by name, it is the only source that indexes this genre of post-1950 western nonfiction magazines. Since these magazines were considered pulp or ephemereal in many instances, the articles cited will be difficult to locate. However, the book is recommended for libraries whose clientele includes serious western-history buffs, as well as for extensive special collections of popular literature and culture.

Booknews

Based on a complete set of every western history magazine published for a general audience from their beginnings in 1953 through 1991, Browning lists all the articles in which any given Westerner plays a prominent part. The entries are arranged biographically and ordered alphabetically, in standard bibliographical form. For aficianados and researchers certainly, but also of considerable general interest. Published by Barbed Wire Press, 205 West Seventh Ave., Suite 202, Stillwater, OK 74074. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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