Tom Mix Died For Your Sins: A Novel Based On His Life

by Darryl Ponicsan

A colorful evocation of the life and times of Tom Mix, as based on fact but told in fiction. The rodeo and ranching days, the movie stunts and the movie glamour, the private and public circuses, Mix's wives and girls, are all covered in an authentic tale.

Kid Bandera tells the story - tells it with wit, cynicism, and affection. When he met Tom in 1904, Tom was 24 and knew nothing about being a cowboy. But he knew how to ride, he knew how to fight, how to tell stories, and how to ingratiate himself with every girl who came along.

The Kid and Tom were lawmen together in Kansas, worked a combination ranch and wild west show in Oklahoma. And Tom Mix learned his craft - as he learned every craft he tried - and there were no stunts too hard for him.

When Tom Mix went to Hollywood, he brought his incredible stunts to the silent films and brought incredible wealth - and world fame - to himself. Before his career ended, there were command performances in Europe. For neither before nor since was there a movie cowboy his equal.

Genres: Biography

300 pages, Hardcover

First published October 28, 1975

About the author

Aka Anne Argula

Darryl Ponicsan (pronounced PAHN-i-son; born May 26, 1938) is an American writer. He is best known as the author of the 1971 novel The Last Detail, which was adapted into a 1973 movie starring Jack Nicholson; and for the 1973 novel and screenplay Cinderella Liberty, starring James Caan. Ponicsan writes mystery novels under the pen name Anne Argula.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A guy meets Tom Mix early in the 20 century, and tells us about their adventures, and Mix's messy personal life.

This sort of thing was very popular at the time. If it were a movie, it probably would have Hoyt Axton in it.

It was entertaining, but completely left out Mix's time in the Mexican Revolution and his relationship with Pancho Villa.

[Raymond Rockwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's another I've read twice. If "Brokeback Mountain" ain't your grandfather's
western, Tom Mix movies certainly were. My own pappy was so took by Tom
that my first steed was named Tony, after the wonderhorse of the silents. This
biographical fiction trails a self-invented cowboy all the way through multiple film
and matrimonial contracts, all larger than life. Mix did his own stunts until the twi-
light of his career, and battered his body thereby. He never believed that "talkies"
had a future...