Journal of the Gun Years [Mass Market Paperback]

Richard Matheson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2009

Back East, they told tall tales about Marshall Clay Halser, the fearless Civil War veteran who became known as the “Hero of the Plains” for his daring exploits in the Wild West.  But the truth, as revealed in his private journals, is even more compelling.

A callow youth in search of excitement, Halser travels to the raucous cow towns of the frontier, where his steady nerve and ready trigger finger soon mark him as a gunfighter to be reckoned with.  As both an outlaw and a lawman, he carves out a legendary career.  But fame proves to be the one enemy he can never outdraw–and a curse that haunts him to the bitter end . . . .

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Journal of the Gun Years, Winner of the Spur Award:

"The best novel I read last year."
--Stephen King

“The best western of the season!”
–Booklist

“The author gives his story a credibility and honesty unusual in the genre.”
--Publishers Weekly

“Breathtaking . . . first-rate . . . impossible to put down.  Mr. Matheson has done something remarkable: with a single novel he has placed himself in the front rank of Western novelists.”
--Richard S. Wheeler, author of Virgin River

“A novel filled with remarkable surprises . . . a fine and unique book.”
--Ed Gorman, author of Sleeping Dogs

“A remarkable western novel.  It strips the romanticism from the old West, but retains the blood-and-guts violence, as well as the high excitement of the frontier.  Clay Halser’s journals are the stuff of myth.”
--Norman Zollinger, author of The Road to Santa Fe

“Journal of the Gun Years is a three carat diamond.  Read and enjoy it without delay.”
--Max Evans, author of For the Love of Horses

“Some of the best damn writing Matheson’s done in his spectacular career.”
--Loren D. Estleman, author of Gas City  

From the Publisher

8 1-hour cassettes --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; Reprint edition (April 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765362260
• ISBN-13: 978-0765362261
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #545,973 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Matheson was born in 1926. He began publishing SF with his short story 'Born of Man and Woman' in 1950. I Am Legend was published in 1954 and subsequently filmed as The Omega Man (in 1971), starring Charlton Heston, and I Am Legend (in 2007), starring Will Smith. Matheson wrote the script for the film The Incredible Shrinking Man, an adaptation of his second SF novel The Shrinking Man. The film won a Hugo award in 1958. He wrote many screenplays as well as episodes of The Twilight Zone. He continued to write short stories and novels, some of which formed the basis for film scripts, including Duel, directed by Steven Spielberg in 1971. A film of his novel What Dreams May Come was released in 1998, starring Robin Williams. Stephen King has cited Richard Matheson as a creative influence on his work.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why Haven't More People Read This Great Book?, July 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Journal Of Gun Years (Paperback)

While browsing through the bookstore, my eye caught this blurb on the cover of this novel. "The best novel I read last year." The quote is from Stephen King, no less. When I saw that the author was Richard Matheson, I was very surprised since I primarily know Matheson as a writer of horror. Westerns have not been an element of my previous reading history but I decided to give it a try. God, was I glad that I did! I now rate this novel as one of my top three all time favorites. Matheson's approach is to take the traditional story of the life of a gunslinger in the old West and look at it from the inside out. The novel takes the form of a journal written by Clay Hauser from his beginning as a frightened soldier in the Cival War to his inevitable destiny in a small mining town. From outlaw to lawman (and sometimes back again) during this ten year period, Matheson does a wonderful job in depicting the deterioration of a potentially great man. I felt genuinely sad at the end of this powerful novel. I've been recommending this novel throughout the Internet whenever I get the chance. I think that it's time that people began to realize that the modern Western is a 'new' genre filled with interesting writing and stories. I would have thought that people would have been more influenced by the success of Lonesome Dove. (Another of my top three favorites, by the way.) C'MON, people, get on the ball and stop being afraid to explore new avenues of literature. Because that's exactly what this novel is, Great Literature!!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smooth genre hopping, April 20, 2004

By 

paul mason "dedarkone" (Barrie On) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Journal Of Gun Years (Paperback)

Richard Mattheson is arguably best known for his novel(la) I AM LEGEND, a classic horror novel which much has been written about by fans, critics, and peers. I bring this up because some authors write in a genre very well and experiment or cross over to another genre and even if the story is as strong are not as successful in their second writing category. Even master Stephen King's Dark Tower series where he moves easily from his renown horror tales to dark fantasy isn't as critically or popularly acclaimed as his other books. Mattheson moved his horrific prose into an old west setting gracefully and smoothly. He uses the same economy of words to tell the story of Marshall Halser, who not much of a plot spoiler to add gets shot in opening chapters.

The narrotor is Halser not from beyond the grave per se but in the form of his journals in the hands of a friend and journalist who wishes to publicize them to seperate myth from man. As I said Mattheson is spare in his writing not using five pages of details where one will do, instead he writes a tight plot making this a quick fun read.

Incidentally it won the 1991 Spur award so my praise of his genre transition is a little redundant hehehe.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Living and Dying By The Gun!, July 22, 2009

By 

Michael OConnor "Wordsmith" (Wausau, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Journal of the Gun Years (Mass Market Paperback)

My admiration for Richard Matheson kicked up a notch when I came across JOURNAL OF THE GUN YEARS in the Western section of B&N. I had no idea Matheson dabbled in the western genre but, after reading this tightly-crafted, gripping account of a legendary shootist, I say "More power to him." JOURNAL OF THE GUN YEARS is a winner, actually a Spur Award winner for Best Western novel published in 1991.

Matheson's novel traces the fictional life and times - and crimes - of Clay Halser, a directionless farm boy with a talent for shooting. After serving in the Civil War, he drifts westward into a career as a desperado-turned-lawman before meeting his inevitable fate.

Though Matheson's novel tells the story of one man's checkered career, it is equally a cautionary tale on fame and the cost it extracts from that individual. The media transforms Halser into a storied, larger-than-life character, an image that eventually overwhelms the man. By the end of this affecting novel, the "great gunfighter" has been lionized and feted but is empty, lonely and scared with nary a true friend in sight.

Matheson does a wonderful job of channeling the Old West. Halser seems an amalgam of Hickok, Wyatt Earp with a little Billy the Kid thrown in. One of Halser's best friends seems a Doc Holliday doppelganger and so on. JOURNAL OF THE GUN YEARS is exciting, gritty and poignant; all in all, a great read. Recommended.

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