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Sam Bass (Texas Tradition Series)
The story of Sam Bass, both outlaw and romantic figure, has become a familiar part of Texas folklore and is well documented in nonfiction. But in this novel, Bryan Woolley creates a compelling story by giving the antihero fictional life. Woolley brings Bass alive through six alternating voices—Maude, the whore who was Bass's lover; Mary Matson, the African American who took him in and tended him as he lay dying; Dad Egan, the lawman who was once a father-figure to young Sam Bass but feels compelled to capture the outlaw; Frank Johnson, who rode with Bass but left the outlaw life to reappear as a small-town doctor; and Jim Murphy, the well-meaning saloonkeeper who makes a bargain with the law and brings down Sam Bass.
In shaping the Bass story, Woolley explores the themes of youth and age, impulse and wisdom. An outlaw, for many of us, is not a villain or a criminal but someone who, by choice or circumstance, finds himself at odds with society. We see the outlaw life as one of carefree freedom without responsibilities and full of infinite possibilities. Frank Jackson says it best as he recalls riding with Sam “I felt like an outlaw but not like a criminal, and the beauty of the day and its freedom filled me.”
In shaping the Bass story, Woolley explores the themes of youth and age, impulse and wisdom. An outlaw, for many of us, is not a villain or a criminal but someone who, by choice or circumstance, finds himself at odds with society. We see the outlaw life as one of carefree freedom without responsibilities and full of infinite possibilities. Frank Jackson says it best as he recalls riding with Sam “I felt like an outlaw but not like a criminal, and the beauty of the day and its freedom filled me.”
232 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1983
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January 12, 2020
Recommend, 5+ stars recommend ... would like to see more reviews on this book.
Like structure with different characters within the Sam Bass orbit telling the story. One of the 5 narrators was an exceptionally surprising voice that made the tale's end most memorable.
Became interested in Sam Bass while listening to Don Edwards 'Coyotes'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGGEf...
(Version I listen to is by a younger Don.)
***
Here's a quote from the start of chapter 2, the second narrator to be telling the tale - page 35
"I'm free to say I don't regret riding with Sam Bass. And if some miracle happened and Sam tracked me into New Mexico and found this village, and if he could divine that the strange name on the shingle over my office door designates his old friend, Frank Jackson, and if he asked me to live it all again, I would do it.
"Sam and I were brothers as surely as if we had been pulled from the same womb. Fate had made us orphans. Fate had decreed that we find one another. Only other orphans on equally harsh frontiers might understand the loneliness in which we lived before we met. The Widow Lacy and Dad Egan were kind to him. They tried in various ways to make him a part of their own households. But that kind of kindness only salts the pain of an orphan's loneliness, making it intolerable. ...
Sam had never permitted himself to think that he was really a part of Dad's family, so he could defy Dad with a clear conscience, knowing he had earned everything he received from his benefactor and had accepted nothing free."
Jackson told about half the book's page count. He was living with an old doctor, in a cabin filled with books and assorted professional and intellectual tools. Woolley writes, "I was a colt wandering in a pasture of learning, free to nibble what I pleased."
***
Here's a review I like:
https://www.tamupress.com/book/978087...
The story of Sam Bass, both outlaw and romantic figure, has become a familiar part of Texas folklore and is well documented in nonfiction. But in this novel, Bryan Woolley creates a compelling story by giving the antihero fictional life. Woolley brings Bass alive through six alternating voices—Maude, the whore who was Bass's lover; Mary Matson, the African American who took him in and tended him as he lay dying; Dad Egan, the lawman who was once a father-figure to young Sam Bass but feels compelled to capture the outlaw; Frank Jackson, who rode with Bass but left the outlaw life to reappear as a small-town doctor; and Jim Murphy, the well-meaning saloonkeeper who makes a bargain with the law and brings down Sam Bass.
In shaping the Bass story, Woolley explores the themes of youth and age, impulse and wisdom. An outlaw, for many of us, is not a villain or a criminal but someone who, by choice or circumstance, finds himself at odds with society. We see the outlaw life as one of carefree freedom without responsibilities and full of infinite possibilities. Frank Jackson says it best as he recalls riding with Sam Bass: “I felt like an outlaw but not like a criminal, and the beauty of the day and its freedom filled me.”
***
From the internet a copied review
"KIRKUS REVIEW
"Bad Sam Bass, real-life Texas bank-and-train robber of the 1870s, has a better press with regional writer Woolley, who has a sure rein-hand on local speech and mores in this workmanlike fictional bio. Sam comes from Indiana with a dream of making it in Texas, eventually bunking for three years with stiff-spined, pursed-lipped ""Dad"" Egan, sheriff of the town of Denton (and one of the novel's five narrators)--who swears that Sam was the best worker he ever had in his freighting business, a quiet and popular fellow, great with kids. But Sam does get in with some strange friends--shifty family man Henry Underwood, studious Frank Jackson, garrulous Jim Murphy--and trouble comes when Sam fails in love with a horse named Jenny: soon he's a racing fool, gambling, winning everywhere, with lots of ""trash"" followers. So, thrown out by Dad, Sam does a Union Pacific heist and collects med-student Frank (the next narrator) as his unlikely partner. Then, as Sam's gang roams, hides out, robs stages and trains, brothel-babe Maude carries on the tale--loving Sam, reporting on the Rangers and Pinkertons hanging around. But, after Henry and other personnel in the Sam gang ship out or pack it in, Sam's run for the Big Dream will end in betrayal (the Judas, Jim Murphy, will tell his own story). . . and there's a long deathbed scene in 1878. (""I started sporting on horses,"" says the dying Sam. ""It just went on from there."") Despite the purty implausible characterization of Frank: a solid, old-timey reconstruction for aficionados of the train-robbery era."
Like structure with different characters within the Sam Bass orbit telling the story. One of the 5 narrators was an exceptionally surprising voice that made the tale's end most memorable.
Became interested in Sam Bass while listening to Don Edwards 'Coyotes'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGGEf...
(Version I listen to is by a younger Don.)
***
Here's a quote from the start of chapter 2, the second narrator to be telling the tale - page 35
"I'm free to say I don't regret riding with Sam Bass. And if some miracle happened and Sam tracked me into New Mexico and found this village, and if he could divine that the strange name on the shingle over my office door designates his old friend, Frank Jackson, and if he asked me to live it all again, I would do it.
"Sam and I were brothers as surely as if we had been pulled from the same womb. Fate had made us orphans. Fate had decreed that we find one another. Only other orphans on equally harsh frontiers might understand the loneliness in which we lived before we met. The Widow Lacy and Dad Egan were kind to him. They tried in various ways to make him a part of their own households. But that kind of kindness only salts the pain of an orphan's loneliness, making it intolerable. ...
Sam had never permitted himself to think that he was really a part of Dad's family, so he could defy Dad with a clear conscience, knowing he had earned everything he received from his benefactor and had accepted nothing free."
Jackson told about half the book's page count. He was living with an old doctor, in a cabin filled with books and assorted professional and intellectual tools. Woolley writes, "I was a colt wandering in a pasture of learning, free to nibble what I pleased."
***
Here's a review I like:
https://www.tamupress.com/book/978087...
The story of Sam Bass, both outlaw and romantic figure, has become a familiar part of Texas folklore and is well documented in nonfiction. But in this novel, Bryan Woolley creates a compelling story by giving the antihero fictional life. Woolley brings Bass alive through six alternating voices—Maude, the whore who was Bass's lover; Mary Matson, the African American who took him in and tended him as he lay dying; Dad Egan, the lawman who was once a father-figure to young Sam Bass but feels compelled to capture the outlaw; Frank Jackson, who rode with Bass but left the outlaw life to reappear as a small-town doctor; and Jim Murphy, the well-meaning saloonkeeper who makes a bargain with the law and brings down Sam Bass.
In shaping the Bass story, Woolley explores the themes of youth and age, impulse and wisdom. An outlaw, for many of us, is not a villain or a criminal but someone who, by choice or circumstance, finds himself at odds with society. We see the outlaw life as one of carefree freedom without responsibilities and full of infinite possibilities. Frank Jackson says it best as he recalls riding with Sam Bass: “I felt like an outlaw but not like a criminal, and the beauty of the day and its freedom filled me.”
***
From the internet a copied review
"KIRKUS REVIEW
"Bad Sam Bass, real-life Texas bank-and-train robber of the 1870s, has a better press with regional writer Woolley, who has a sure rein-hand on local speech and mores in this workmanlike fictional bio. Sam comes from Indiana with a dream of making it in Texas, eventually bunking for three years with stiff-spined, pursed-lipped ""Dad"" Egan, sheriff of the town of Denton (and one of the novel's five narrators)--who swears that Sam was the best worker he ever had in his freighting business, a quiet and popular fellow, great with kids. But Sam does get in with some strange friends--shifty family man Henry Underwood, studious Frank Jackson, garrulous Jim Murphy--and trouble comes when Sam fails in love with a horse named Jenny: soon he's a racing fool, gambling, winning everywhere, with lots of ""trash"" followers. So, thrown out by Dad, Sam does a Union Pacific heist and collects med-student Frank (the next narrator) as his unlikely partner. Then, as Sam's gang roams, hides out, robs stages and trains, brothel-babe Maude carries on the tale--loving Sam, reporting on the Rangers and Pinkertons hanging around. But, after Henry and other personnel in the Sam gang ship out or pack it in, Sam's run for the Big Dream will end in betrayal (the Judas, Jim Murphy, will tell his own story). . . and there's a long deathbed scene in 1878. (""I started sporting on horses,"" says the dying Sam. ""It just went on from there."") Despite the purty implausible characterization of Frank: a solid, old-timey reconstruction for aficionados of the train-robbery era."
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