Buster Fogg, a young orphan, joins up with a medicine show known as The Magic Wagon and its two con men, Billy Bob Daniels and Old Albert
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
In 1986, years before he became known for his hardboiled crime thrillers, Lansdale crafted this wry, nostalgic elegy to the Wild West published in a small print run with limited distribution. A mild-mannered precursor to his brassy The Big Blow, this entertaining episodic novel is also set in turn-of-the-20th-century eastern Texas, where crooked traveling medicine shows and aging gunslingers define the closing frontier. Narrator Buster Fogg's family is wiped out by a twister in an early sequence described with surreal verve. Buster hitches on with Billy Bob Daniels, a patent-medicine pusher and trick shooter who claims to be the illegitimate son of Wild Bill Hickock, joining an entourage consisting of a kindly ex-slave named Albert, and Rot Toe, the wrestling ape. Adventures on the road which include swiping the mummified remains of Billy Bob's "pa" and swindling settlers with their concoction of watered-down whiskey stoke personal tensions that only aggravate troubles when their wagon rolls into Mud Creek and Billy Bob is called out by Texas Jack, a dime-novel desperado who, legend says, intimidated even Wild Bill. Lansdale's affection for the classic western is never in doubt, although he spends much of the novel skillfully deflating the romance of heroic reputations made as much by luck and exaggeration as by skill with a gun. The true charm of the story, though, is iin its telling, which melds laconic humor, colorful colloquialisms and outrageous figures of speech into a Twainesque tall tale. This novel endures as a modern western classic.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
US$ 5.95
Within U.S.A.
Seller: Books Plus, LLC, Lexington, SC, U.S.A.
Hard Cover. Condition: BOOK NEW. Dust Jacket Condition: No Dustjacket. 1st Edition. AN EXTREMELY CLEAN, ATTRACTIVE COPY. NO PREVIOUS OWNER MARKINGS. 180 pages. Glossy, color pictorial cover. NOT an ex-library copy or a remainder. GIFT GIVING CONDITION. Seller Inventory # 18188
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: BRIAN MCMILLAN, BOOKS, Traer, IA, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Fair. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. 1st ed. HC. Ex-lib. Usual internal marks/little tape peeling on ep's else a clean mod. rolled G+ copy wi/small (less than 1/4x 1/4) peeled spot near lower edge of frnt cv & several stamps/small marks on top edge of leaves in unmarked laminated DW " wi/tape remains on flaps and wi/laminate peeled from about 1/4 of the btm of the front panel; small spine label removed leaving light discoloration; both wi/very light chipping that doesn"t detract else very nice/bright near fine.". Seller Inventory # 750074
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Peruse the Stacks, ABAA, Gig Harbor, WA, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. First U. K. large print edition, signed and inscribed by Lansdale on the title page. Fine condition in publisher's pictorial boards. Seller Inventory # 4110
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Nicholas J. Certo, Newburgh, NY, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: As New. English large print edition. Bound in glazed pictorial boards, not issued in dust wrapper. Inscribed, signed and dated by the author 4/26/89 on title page. An as new copy, purchased new and never read. Inscribed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 12381
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Pat Cramer, Bookseller, Lewisville, TX, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. First Edition/First Printing. A square solid tight clean un-read copy. This copy has some very light rubbing wear to the pictorial boards else fine. The large print edition which also looks like the First British hardcover edition. A very nice copy. THIS COPY IS IN MY POSSESSION AND NORMALLY SHIPS NEXT DAY. This copy includes a picture of Joe that I snapped at a signing event. Signed by the author on the title page. Book. Seller Inventory # 021329
Quantity: 1 available