The Shootist (Spitfire Editions) - Softcover

Glendon Swarthout

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1904027334 ISBN 13: 9781904027331

Publisher: Elliott & Thompson Limited, 2004

Synopsis

By the author of The Homesman, now a major motion picture The Shootist is John Bernard Books, a gunfighter at the turn of the twentieth century who must confront the greatest Shootist of all: Death. Most men would end their days in bed or take their own lives, but a gunfighter has a third option, one that Books decides to exercise. He may choose his own executioner.
As word spreads that the famous assassin has incurable cancer, an assortment of human vultures gathers to feast on the corpse—among them a gambler, a rustler, a clergyman, an undertaker, an old love, a reporter, even an admiring teenager. What follows is the last courageous act in Books’s own legend.
This classic, Spur Award–winning novel was chosen by the Western Writers of America as one of the best western novels ever written and was the inspiration for John Wayne’s last great starring role in the acclaimed 1976 film adaptation. The Bison Books edition includes a new introduction by the author’s son, Miles Swarthout, in which he discusses his father’s work and the making of the legendary film.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

  The Shootist is John Bernard Books, a man of principle and the only surviving gunfighter in a vanishing American West.  He rides into El Paso in the year 1901, on the day Queen Victoria died, there to be told by a doctor that he must soon confront the greatest shootist of all: Death.  In such a showdown, against such an antagonist, he cannot win. Most men may end their days  in bed or take their own lives, but a man-killer has a 3rd option, one which Books decides to exercise.  He may choose his own executioner.
   As word spreads that the famous assassin has reached the end of his rope, an assortment of vultures gathers to feast upon his corpse--among them a gambler, a rustler, an undertaker, an old love, a reporter, even a boy.  Books outwits them, however, by selecting the where, when, who, and why of his death, and writing in fire from a pair of Remingtons the last courageous act of his own legend.  The climatic gunfight itself is an incredible performance by an incredible man, and by his creator, Glendon Swarthout.
   The Shootist will rank with such classics as Shane and The Ox-Bow Incident, but it is much more than a Western.  When, in the final afternoon of his life, J. B. Books crosses a street and enters a saloon to make something of his death, we cross, we enter, with him.  He is us.

From the Back Cover

   "From a corner of the south window Gillom Rogers spied on the new lodger. The man unpacked his valise and put things in a drawer of the chiffonier, then hung his Price Albert coat  in the closet.  When he turned from the closet he was in shirt and vest. The boy's eyes rounded.  Sewn to each side of the vest was a holster, reversed, and in each holster was a pistol, butt forward.  As he watched, sucking in his breath, the man took the weapons out, revolved the cylinders, filled a chamber in one he had evidently fired,and replaced them before hanging the vest, too, in the closet. The pistols were a pair of nickel-plated, short-barreled, unsighted, single-action .44 Remingtons, obviously manufactured to order. The handle of one was black gutta-percha, the other pearl.
   Gillom slipped away to take the horse to the livery, letting the breath of revelation out of his lungs.  He was seventeen, and spent much of his time in saloons.  He was not yet served, but he enjoyed himself and picked up a great deal of miscellaneous information, some of it true, some of it of doubtful authenticity.  But the man in corner room was no stranger to him now.  He had heard enough scalp-itch, blood-freeze tales to know that only one man carried a similar pair of guns in a similar manner..."

Edition details

• Publisher: Elliott & Thompson Limited
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1904027334
• ISBN 13: 9781904027331
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160