Paul I. WellmanReseñas

This is a story of Massai (or Masse) who is a heroic legend amont the Apache of Arizona & New Mexico. It tells the story of how Massai escaped from Geronimo's prison train somewhere east of St. Louis, in September, 1886, and beat his way back to the desert in a manner almost incredible, through hundreds of miles of civilized, thickly populated country, without once being seen. Detachments from 2 to 3 US cavalry regiments, with many Indian scouts, hunted for Massai ceaselessly, yet in many years of pursuit, never caught him, never prevented him from going where he wanted or doing what he wanted, although some lost their lives and the government expended many thousands of dollars in the attempt.

Terrific overview of the main conflicts with empathy.

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Mr. Wellman has assembled a competent history of a genetic and presumably culture lineage that enveloped the James-Younger Gang, Belle Starr, the Dalton gang, the Doolins and finally "Pretty Boy" Floyd. It's a very colourful set of family mythology which can be reasonably documented. It reads well.½

It was a pretty good complex western, though not up to the level of Allen Le May's work. Wellman made a good living in the 1950's and sold this novel and another, "The Iron Mistress" about Jim Bowie to the movies. Both books are readable today.
Oh, Comancheros are traders, usually from Santa Fe, who provided the Comanches with guns, and other supplies. Sometimes they were helpful in rescuing white captives.½

Enoyable traditional western about New Orleans gambler who had to run to Texcas and ends up in the Rangers dealing with the Comancheros whjo traded with the Comanches for loot from Texan settlements. It turns out the woman who he had to flee New Orleans over is the daughter of the Comanchero leader...This has the traditional high view of the Rangers which some now see as ignoring some rather ugly racism, but it is enjyable on its own terms.

1116 Death on the Prairie Volume One of the Indian Wars of the West, by Paul I. Wellman (read 16 May 1971) This is an account of Indian wars, beginning with an account of Indian massacres in Minnesota in 1862 and ending with the massacre of Wounded Knee on Dec. 29, 1890. The book is not well-organized, but it does give accounts of various historic Indian encounters. It is very clear that the Indian was more sinned against than sinning. This country is dotted with historic sites, even as in Europe.½

I read this book aloud for the Texas State Library. That was at least 15 years ago. The book itself is a potboiler about land grabbing and forbidden love. My most vivid memories are of a huge mistake I made in trying to imitate John Huston's voice as the narrator. The book is quite long and this became a heavy burden to carry for over 300 pages. I believe I tried out Henry Fonda as the money grubber in chief. I also selected a nasty version of Henry Jones for the voice of the heroine's pinched little husband. In my mind's ear, these were all marvelous impersonations. In listening to the playback, I could detect next to nothing of my inspirations, but at least my attempts provided a little more life to the reading than the story stimulated in my imagination.

Poorly told.

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INDEX; MAP; BOOKS TO READ (RECOMMENDED)

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A Novel About the Secret Adventure of Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston That Changed the Course of History.

Signed 1st edition to JR Walker

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