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~ John Thomas Edson ~
John Thomas Edson is known locally as J.T. but not only to the townsfolk of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, but to millions of loyal fans all over the world. He's the most successful living author of gun-slinging, action-packed western novels. Formerly a fish and chip shop proprietor, then a mailman, Edson's 136 books since 1962 have sold 27 million copies, mostly in North America as well as Britain and the rest of the world. J.T. is one of Britain's most successful authors; not bad for the son of a local miner. Edson took correspondence courses on short story writing, and eventually won a prize in a small London publisher's competition with his first novel, Trail Boss. The book was bought by the publisher, and within a few years Edson was selling as many as 250,000 per title. He is now published by Dell in New York.
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Synopsis
When Stone Hart's wealthy ranch becomes the target for greedy outlaws, his only chance of defending his stretch of Spanish Grant County lies in a hard-hitting, fast-shooting Texan crew that includes the Ysabel Kid and Calamity Jane.
Synopsis
A sprawling Arizona county is open for the taking, and the East Coast sharpies are moving in. But the land grabbers and bank robbers are in for a fierce battle when they come up against rancher Stone Hart and his gang. The fight for the range explodes into war when notorious reinforcements join up the Stone - including a lady named Calamity Jane.
Synopsis
Inheriting an Arizona ranch from a long-lost uncle he hardly new, Stone Hart, accompanied by a crew of fellow Texans and Confederate veterans, sets out to claim his legacy, only to discover that some of his new neighbors are hell-bent on claiming the land for their own.
Synopsis
In the small towns of the Old West, a fool and his money were soon parted--and often by a pretty lady named Belle Starr. No one outsmarted, or outshot, the lady outlaw from Oklahoma. When a friend from Ole Devil Hardin's floating outfit was cheated out of a serious sum by a clever gang, Belle rode into action to help the outfit get cold, hard revenge.
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Synopsis
A disease called "Texas fever" was causing trouble for Texas cattle ranchers. The government was ready to do anything to find a cure, even if that meant pardoning a man with a price on his head. Smith was allowed to return to serve as a bodyguard to the brilliant vet who may be close to a cure.
Synopsis
Comanche warrior Annie Singing Bear must represent her entire tribe by using her extraordinary fighting skills and possibly her life to avenge a young maiden who was brutally raped and murdered.
Synopsis
The great-grandson of Mark Counter from Ole Devil Hardon's outfit, Brad Counter carries on the family legacy as deputy sheriff in Texas, as he and his partner, Deputy Alice Fayde, must investigate the tragic murder of a fellow officer.
Synopsis
Deputized to stop three rustlers who are holding up cowboys, the Ysabel Kid is prompted to seek revenge when his trail boss's granddaughter is kidnapped and is shocked when he learns that his enemy is a woman.
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Synopsis
The tragic experience of seeing the Yankees murder both her parents marks the turning point in Belle's life as she becomes a skilled swordswoman and joins the Secret Service of the Confederacy, hell-bent on revenge.
Reviews:
Arizona Gun Law: Stone Hart's ranch is a stretch of land rich with silver, gold and copper--and running with blood. The forces of greed won't leave Spanish Grant County without a final fight, and Hart's only chance of defending his claim lies in the support of a hard-riding and fast-shooting Texas crew including the Ysabel Kid and Calamity Jane.
Oklahoma Outlaws: In the violent and lawless days following the Civil War many infamous outlaws cut a bloody swathe across the West...John Wesley Hardin, Bad Bill Longley, Sam Bass, Frank and Jesse James, the Daltons...all rode and shot their way to notoriety. But, with one exception, the women were less well known in the annals of frontier legends. The exception was a beautiful, shapely, intelligent wildcat, quick in a fight, and deadly with a gun. Before she had ridden the owlhoot trails for long the posters began to appear on the sheriff's notice boards from Canada to the Rio Grande, from the Mississippi to the Pacific...Wanted! Belle Starr, the Oklahoma Outlaw.
Cure The Texas Fever: There's big trouble for Texas cattle ranchers. A mysterious disease called "Texas Fever" seems to follow their herds to market. Now their steers may be banned from Kansas and the railroad -- a measure that will spell ruin for them all. The governor's ready to do anything to find a cure, even pardon a man with a price on his head, Waxahachie Smith. The scheme is all Captain Dusty Fog's idea. He knows Wax dreams of coming home to Texas where he's a wanted man. Now Wax can return if he takes over the protection of a brilliant young vet who may be close to a breakthrough cure. But unscrupulous men will gain if the Texas cattlemen go under. And with flying bullets and hired killers getting ever closer, Wax needs to use his famous slip gun to even the odds -- to draw fast, shoot straight, and fight to the death to clear his name.
Texas Kidnappers: Libby Craddock assured her gang of inexperienced young outlaws she had gathered that her plan was simplicity itself and would bring them plenty of money without the need to do any work to get it. All they had to do was stop a stagecoach making for Bent's Ford, remove the rich girl travelling on it and hold her for ransom. Although Libby and her gang did not know it, there were two very serious snags in the plan. The girl was Betty Hardin and she was fully capable of taking care of herself. Even worse than that, waiting for Betty to arrive at Bent's Ford was the Ysabel Kid.
Mississippi Raider:
Belle Boyd came from a family of eight sisters and though he loved them
deeply, her father had always wanted a son. With her riding ability and
her quick shot, Belle was the closest he would come. On a fateful day,
Belle would have to say goodbye to her past and attempt to lead her region
to victory. The Yankees stormed the Boyd farm
and quickly killed Belle's mother and father. Belle quickly drew her
father's sword and savagely attacked the group of men. Her skill and
agility impressed and terrified them and they fled. Now, she'll do
anything to avenge the death of her parents, even if it means going deep
into enemy territory. Initial attempts to
join the Rebels come to naught, but Belle presses on, seeking information
and training herself for battle until she is taken in by the Rebel Army
for a most dangerous assignment - to infiltrate and spy on the Yankees.
This is the story of Belle Boyd and how she became a
Rebel spy. This is the start of her legend.
Article:
John Thomas Edson moseys down the small town main street [of Melton Mowbray] towards his favourite bar. He is wearing cowboy boots bought in El Paso, a two-tone boarskin jacket picked up in Wichita and an ornate belt buckle from Scottsdale, Arizona. He also sports gray, muttonchop whiskers. "Hi, J.T.," folks greet the 70-year-old as he passes. He acknowledges the well-wishers with a gruff "Howdy." All eyes turn to him as he enters the saloon, where he sidles up to Sonia, the woman behind the bar, and raises an eyebrow. She smiles, nods- and fixes him the less than traditional cowboy meal of a cheese and Branston pickle sandwich accompanied by a pint of warm English ale.
Despite his outfit, we are 5,000 miles from the Wild American West, in the mild English East Midlands. That's why the locally born and bred Edson feels that topping it all off with a Stetson might be just too much. Yet Edson, known as J.T. not only to the townsfolk of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, but to millions of loyal fans all over the world, is the most successful living author of gun-slinging, action-packed western novels. Formerly a fish and chip shop proprietor, then a mailman, Edson's 136 books since 1962 have sold 27 million copies, mostly in North America as well as Britain and the rest of the world.
Such slim, slick and undemanding J.T. Edson volumes as Trail Boss, Texas Teamwork, Gunsmoke Thunder and The Rio Hondo Kid are not the kind of thing that will ever remotely trouble Booker Prize judges. But supermarket sales, largely in the U.S., have made Edson one of Britain's most successful authors after Barbara Cartland, and with at least 9 million more sales than Jeffrey Archer. Only one writer of traditional cowboy stories, Louis L'Amour, a genuine Wild Westerner who died in 1988, has sold more books than Britain's Edson.
Such success for an English miner's son in a strictly American genre might still be within the bounds of believability if J.T. Edson had, perhaps, emigrated to the United States and spent years steeping himself in Wild West history, geography and language. However, Edson had been an established western writer nine years before he crossed the Atlantic. Even today, most of his experience of the Old West has been from passing through it on the Interstates between writers' conventions. All his research is done at home in Leicestershire, in his library of western reference books and in front of the TV screen. He churns out novels in as little as six weeks in the front room of his house in a humdrum Leicestershire street, with his trusty dictionary of western speech at his side, often borrowing the personalities of his characters from unwitting local acquaintances.
"Don't forget that Edgar Rice Burroughs never went to Africa in his life and made a fortune writing about Tarzan, an English lord living in the jungle with a pack of apes," says Edson. "I've no desire to have lived in the Wild West, and I've never even been on a horse. I've seen those things and they look highly dangerous at both ends and bloody uncomfortable in the middle." Edson's fascination with the West began when he was a movie-obsessed child. "Even as a kid I used to rewrite the plots of cowboy films," he recalls. "I ended up joining the army, and gave no more thought to writing until I was in my thirties. Then I found myself thinking up western plots again while I was cycling round the town delivering the mail."
Edson took correspondence courses on short story writing, and eventually won a prize in a small London publisher's competition with his first novel, Trail Boss. The book was bought by the publisher, and within a few years Edson was selling as many as 250,000 per title. He is now published by Dell in New York, where his editor, Jackie Miller, says: "I had no idea when I became J.T.'s editor that he was anything other than a U.S. phenomenon. When I found out he lived in England I was extremely surprised. He has the voice of the West absolutely pat."
But how does the man devising his latest plot over a lunchtime pint in the Half Moon pub in deepest Leicestershire go down in what is theoretically, at least, his heartland, the American far West? One devoted fan, Barbara Baird of Springfield, Oregon, says she has bought every Edson book, and that he compares favorably to Louis L'Amour. "L'Amour lived the life and researched every location," says Baird, "so the places, and almost the people, are real. Edson is different. They are less authentic, but more human stories. You get interested in the characters' lives. As far as the language is concerned, sometimes living out here I can see some of the phraseology isn't quite right, but it doesn't bother me."
Getting readers like Baird as involved as that across a gap of half the world and an entire culture is a fairly unique literary trick on J.T. Edson's part. But perhaps if you're the world's leading author of westerns it helps to be a stranger in these parts.
East of the Wild West - Britain's J.T. Edson blazes a trail of success as the most prolific living writer of cowboy novels, by Jonathan Margolis, Time Magazine.
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