This window of history spikes appreciation for the Frontier Wild West as no other book has ever done. All the tragedies, escapes, failures and triumphs of this epic will never be duplicated again in real life. These gems of circumstance, instinct, zest for life and survival can only be relived through ancient memory. This book echoes that memory.
There will never be another Charlie Russell who lived it, told it and illustrated it with such zest and detail as he did. God gifted Charlie’s right hand to put paint on canvas in such a way as to absolutely capture the ‘crux of the moment’ far better than any camera can do to this very day.
For example, when Charlie painted a horse, that horse did not just stand stoic and take up space. Instead, Charlie’s horses constantly bucked and contorted high in the air to dump a rider, or dodge the horns of a buffalo, or spin to escape a charging steer. Sometimes the horse was not quick enough and it tumbled with its rider underneath. Such was the life of a cowboy. Bottom line, if there was no action or story, there was no painting, and he did over two thousand distinct works of art.
Charlie not only captured the ‘moment’ in all its fury, but also the correct color and style of shirt, boots, hats, saddles, rifles, bows, arrows, knives and time of day plus the brand and markings of the animal(s) involved. When he finished a painting, the participants to the scene not only recognized the episode but themselves as well. More than two hundred such images plus many ‘stories behind the story’ are in this book.
Charlie actually started off being a real cowboy that competed for work on the open range just like every other refugee from civilization that ventured out West. As long as he had a fresh horse under him every day plus grub and a blanket to sleep on, and fifty cents to a dollar a day for wages, he was thrilled. He did it all! Roundups, wrangling and trail rides to deliver thousands of cattle to the railhead with a litany of fellow drinkers, gamblers, bandits and many other types that he savied. He loved it until he died.
Someday this book will become a billion dollar movie that will eclipse in nostalgia any other western film ever made. For these reasons, I believe this book is worth reading. Enjoy, as you now step back in time more than one hundred fifty years into a forgotten era that billions of people have no idea ever existed.
Charlie simply gave away many of his paintings to anyone who admired them. For years he only asked $25 or less for one of his paintings, calculating his paint time to be equal to standard cowboy wages. Many of Charlie’s paintings now sell for more than $5 million each. As soon as this book and movie take off, the value of each of his works of art will certainly increase.
The story is told that one time Charlie painted a painting and a guy really liked it and offered to buy it. The fellow asked Charlie what he wanted for it. Charlie got sheepish and finally hung his head and said he would be glad to take five fifty for it.
To the shock of Charlie, the guy peeled off five hundred and fifty dollars, thrust it at Charlie and walked off with the painting. Charlie, however, had expected to be beat down from his high asking price of five dollars and fifty cents that he opened with.
This is the fifth book to be published as an e-book by the author, George M. Papa. Also this book is one of the first in the world to be written as a hybrid between a prose novel and a director’s cut motion picture screenplay. For example, slug lines are reduced and simplified, plus the capitalization of character identifications are eliminated to remove choppiness. After just a few pages the reader will adapt and love it. The advantages of speed and absorption are simply too great to ignore.
The reader can absorb more information much faster. A picture is worth the proverbial ‘thousand words’ and there are over two hundred fifty pictures! The emphas