Masterson [Hardcover]

Richard S. Wheeler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1999

In 1919, Bat Masterson, a sports columnist in New York for two decades, is ill and thinking of his youth as a frontier lawman. He is bothered by the legend that has dogged his footsteps, and on impulse he heads West, with his wife Emma, to revisit his past. Traveling back, Masterson ponders the legend that he has become and the elusive truth behind the lies.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Again depicting characters with frailties as well as heroic qualities, the prolific Wheeler's 25th novel (after Aftershocks) is a sprightly romp of revisionist western history. In 1919, legendary gunfighter Bat Masterson is a 64-year-old New York City sportswriter who suddenly becomes worried about the inglorious and mostly false reputation he has endured for decades. Certainly, he had hunted buffalo and fought Indians at the Battle of Adobe Walls; he'd been a gambler and a lawman. But everyone still believes he's an incorrigible womanizer who has run cathouses and gunned down dozens of men. He does admit to being quite the ladies' man, but bristles at the dime-novel exaggerations that depict him swaggering with 26 notches in his pistols and carrying the heads of seven outlaws around in a sack. Accompanied by his common-law wife, Emma, Bat decides to return to Dodge City, Tombstone and Denver to clear his name and to establish that he killed only one man, who richly deserved it, and that he is really a nice fellow if folks would just get to know him. This journey is a hoot as the old lawman finds that the public wants the legend, not the truth. When Bat visits his old friend Wyatt Earp in L.A., he meets actor William S. Hart and learns about why western films are so popular in Hollywood. Bat reminisces with Emma and a few old saddle pals, but finally gives up his quest when he realizes that folks want mythic, infamous heroes, and "you may as well sit back and enjoy the ride because there's no way to get off the train." This is classic Wheeler, a solid story about real people told with wit, compassion and a bit of whimsy. Author tour. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In 1920, legendary gunfighter Bat Masterson is a successful New York newspaper columnist. His colleagues--Louella Parsons and Damon Runyon, among them--want to know the real story. Parsons' persistent questions prompt Bat to look back at his past, particularly the Dodge City years and his associations with Doc Holliday, the Earp brothers, and the notorious gunfight at the OK Corral. Bat and his wife, Emma, begin an odyssey across the U.S., and the former lawman tries to understand his role in the Wild West and explain it to the younger Emma. Wheeler is an award-winning historical-fiction author whose strength is the interweaving of a dozen engaging characters into a coherent vision of a large event, such as the San Francisco earthquake in Aftershocks. In this melancholy, very poignant novel, he shows his ability to focus on one character, producing a nuanced close-up instead of a detailed panorama. Readers will feel privileged to have accompanied Masterson on his pilgrimage. Wes Lukowsky

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 253 pages
• Publisher: Forge; 1st edition (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312870477
• ISBN-13: 978-0312870478
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,869,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Wheeler began a late-in-life career as a novelist at age fifty, and by his seventy-fifth year had written seventy novels. He began life as a newsman and later became a book editor, but turned to fiction full time in 1985.

He started by writing traditional westerns but soon was writing large-scale historical novels and then biographical novels. In recent years he has been writing mysteries as well, some as Axel Brand. His Lieutenant Joe Sonntag series occurs in 1940s Milwaukee, and focuses on life in a big, smoky industrial city just after World War Two.

He has won numerous awards, including the Owen Wister Award for lifetime achievement in the literature of the American West, and also six Spur Awards from Western Writers of America. He has received more Spur Awards than any other living author.

He grew up in Wisconsin and migrated West, holding newspaper jobs in Phoenix, Oakland, Carson City, and Billings. His wife, Sue Hart, is an English professor at Montana State University in Billings.

He has been focusing more and more on biographical novels. One of these, published in March, 2010, is called Snowbound, and is about the explorer John C. Fremont's tragic fourth expedition. It won a Spur Award.


For a quarter of a century he's largely made his living from writing fiction. That reality astonishes him. In his mid-seventies now, he is still dreaming up new stories.

Note: There are other Richard Wheelers writing books. One is an historian of the Civil War, and another writes histories of the Marine Corps, and another is a social scientist. Richard S. Wheeler is the novelist.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Masterson is a masterful search for a legend., September 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Masterson (Hardcover)

Don Chance

The legendary names of the Old West, the true legendary names and not phonies like Matt Dillon or Ben Cartwright, always seem to come in sets. Evidence suggests Jesse and Frank apparently knew Billy and Pat, and Pat once reportedly chased Butch and Sundance, and so on. I mean, the way the enduring names are found together so often, you'd think all those immortal lawmen and outlaws used to have sleep-overs at each other's houses. Makes a certain sense, too - those wide-open spaces of the Old West weren't all that heavily populated with white people until fairly late in the century. But "Masterson," a new speculative novel by Spur Award winner Richard S, Wheeler, explores the life, and especially the legend, of the one name seen most in association with the other famous western figures. Bat Masterson knew them all! Like Forrest Gump, Bartholomew (aka. William Barclay or "Bat") Masterson was present at, or personally knew most of the principles involved in, most of the notorious moments in the history of the western frontier. From his young participation with the other Adobe Wells defenders against Quanah Parker's Commanches, to his term as a tough lawman during Dodge City's wildest cowtown days, to his Tombstone adventures with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, to his final years as a New York City newspaper columnist with such sporting buddies Damon Runyon and Tex Rickard, Bat Masterson is as much a part of the Old West as traildust and the Pony Express. And, even though it's a fictional account of a cross-country trip that never happened, "Masterson" reflects the incredible life and times of this authentic historical icon. At the dawn of Prohibition, William Barclay Masterson is discouraged, depressed, and suffering with the alcohol-aggravated diabetes that would kill him just before his sixty-eighth birthday a year or so away. As another New York winter approaches, he is also trying to come to grips with his fierce and unshakeable "dime novel" reputation as a mankiller, having killed just one white man in his life and that in self-defense. Taking along his long-time common-law wife, Emma, a former vaudeville singer/dancer, Masterson departs on a quest in search of his legend with the intent of setting that legend straight. At their first stop in Dodge City, forty years after the town's turbulent beginnings, the aging couple is met with open hostility by a modern, progressive town desperate to bury its tempestuous past and uncivilized reputation. More determined than ever to root out the source of his infamy, Bat heads on toward friendlier territory in Trinidad, Colorado. San Diego, Los Angeles, Leadville, Pueblo, Denver. Bat Masterson never does lay his legend to rest, but he and Emma enjoy a fine old time trying. As well as telling a thoroughly entertaining yarn, Richard S. Wheeler has done an excellent job of research in pinning down one of the few men in history who saw it all. It's almost impossible to imagine how one man can go from the astoundingly primitive era of the 1880s buffalo hunter to the soft life of an 1900s urban newspaper personality and executive, but Wheeler makes it seem as natural for us as it must've seemed for the original subject. And his views on Masterson's famous and infamous contemporaries just feel right in light of everything known of those people (a disheartening lunch meeting with a suspicious and cynical Wyatt Earp and Josie Marcus in Los Angeles depicts that famous couple's hapless last days in a heart-rending way that makes more sense than most historically accepted accounts). Like I said, Bat Masterson was there - he knew them all. And that reason alone is why there is never enough new books on the man or the legend. It's not factual history, maybe, but Richard Wheeler's "Masterson" is one of those rare books I could read again even though I've just finished it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterson searches for his myth, November 21, 2000

By 

Nancy H. Rathke "oldmoo" (Madison, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Masterson (Hardcover)

It's a rare treat to walk through an actual person's mind in such a convincing book as "Masterson". I only knew of Bat Masterson as the foppish crime-solver from the TV series, and this Masterson is a much more human and plausible man. This is a Western hero I could believe in. It's a grand, sad journey he and his lady take in this book. His life, "past" and "present", and the historic settings through which he travels were obviously well researched. Are there any missteps here? Only Bat could tell us. I think it happened just as Wheeler says.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars MASTERSON By Richard Wheeler, August 18, 2000

By 

Kieran - See all my reviews

This review is from: Masterson (Hardcover)

As far as Western's go this book by Richard Wheeler is not half bad. His historical fiction of Bat Masterson is for the most part a well written book. The only exception is his treatment of Wyatt Earp. It was the one low spot in an other wise fine book about a true Western Lawman "Bat" Masterson.

Richard Wheeler does creditable research on his main subject Masteson in the waining days of his life as a New York Reporter. He peoples his novel with very real people such as Louella Parsons. I found his charaters were fleshed out rather well for the most part, but found his charicature of Wyatt Earp who was very much a real friend of Bat Masterson less than honest. Wyatt was far better educated than portrayed. That aside, enjoy the book.