Riders West

by Ernest Haycox

Book by Haycox, Ernest

321 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1972

Reviews

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather formulaic western, but okay – I did like it that he used a word I had to look up: rachitic – adjective form of rachitis, which is rickets, so it means – rickety!!

He overuses “sensed rather than saw,” “heard rather than saw,” “sensed rather than heard.” He uses the color word “gray” a lot.

I have noticed a lot of folks on TV use nouns with suffixes instead of the proper descriptive noun or adjective, such as “humbleness” instead of “humility” as it was in the novel.
If you have read this, you know it includes some legal problems for one of the characters which is dated also, since divorce doesn’t require what it used to.

He uses some archaic language –
“Now hark to the articles of indenture …”

and some now-labeled racist language –
“free, white, and 21”
“mighty white of you”
“white of you to say so”
“He’s been so darned white”

and one I couldn’t figure out …
“most of you look shy of tallow …”
but perhaps it means you look used up.

To be fair, this was originally copyrighted in 1934. I have bought several books, some of which are written later, so we shall see.

[Kellyt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best of Haycox’s works, but a quick decent read. If you want the best he has written try Canyon Passage, Alder Gulch, Stage to Lordsburg, or the Earth Breakers.

[M. O'Gannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Riders West is an old western I stumbled across not knowing the author, Ernest Haycox, was as prolific and acclaimed as he is. He wrote the novel, Stage to Lordsburg, that was the basis for the John Wayne movie, Stagecoach. This novel is along the usual western setting with a tough, honest, upstanding rancher and a newly arrived woman from the east. The rancher, Bellew, leads the community in a range war against Neel St. Cloud, the villain. The range war takes a while to get off the ground but after sticking with the novel, I enjoyed the ride by the end of the book. It is a little unfair to try to rate the book on today's merits as the book is from 1934 and the language is stilted in places and word use is not always the same as it is today. The book may not meet political correctness of today but it was written 88 years ago. With this in mind, it was an enjoyable western in a good tradition of westerns. I may find some more Haycox novels for a rainy afternoon.

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

A territorial cattle war in a small town becomes complicated when an independent woman from back east comes west to escape some unsavory romantic entanglements. Written on the old paperback cover as enticement: "He was a man with a gun, she was a woman with a past."