Customer Reviews

The Life of John Wesley Hardin As Written by Himself (The Western Frontier Libarary)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As John Wesley Hardin wrote his autobiography he was, presumably, trying to present himself in a favorable light; shading things to make himself look good. That said, he still comes off as an utterly cold-blooded killer without conscience or a twinge of remorse. This makes the reading all the more interesting as he isn't holding back or trying to apologize for, or justify, the things he did.

The story is very well-written (Hardin was a lawyer when he wrote it, during the brief time he survived once he was released from prison). As authentic western adventures go, this is a top-rate book. Hardin tells of cattledrives, chases by posses, encounters with the law including Hickok, and shootouts.

Hardin begins his narrative by acknowledging that he is very much a product of a particular time and place, a particular culture. He does not see any reason why he should attempt to transcend that, let alone apologize for it. He accepts himself for what he is and expects everyone else to do the same. He is above all a man of violence, ready and able to resolve all conflicts with physical - if necessary, deadly - force. Raised in Reconstruction Texas, he finds plenty to fuel his resentment, including carpetbagger politicians from the north and newly emancipated slaves appointed as police officers (an unquestioning racialism was part of his heritage). Nor is it in his nature to run from a fight. When he hears that Wild Bill Hickok, then Marshall of Abilene, has threatened to kill him if he ever sets foot in the town, what does he do? Goes immediately to Abilene of course, to face him. I would have been inclined to go anywhere but.

Tough, fearless, uncompromising and cunning (at one point, he pretends to cry, in order to throw his captors off-guard) with an uncontrollable temper, he became the most formidable gunfighter of the Old West. How many men he killed no one knows for sure. Not even he knew. It was at least 20, probably 40 or more.

His life story has the strengths and weaknesses common to all autobiographies: it is the authentic voice, but it tells us a selective and heavily slanted story. It remains an invaluable primary source and should be required reading for anyone seriously interested in the history of the American West. Although not great literature, it is well written. The Western Frontier Library edition is good, with a useful introduction and postscript, but I would have liked a few footnotes, to save me having to go online for explanations of 'headright' and 'galluses', etc.

I am a great-grandson of John Wesley Hardin, so take special interest in reading about his life and comparing different stories on his life with those passed on by my relatives through the years. This book, because of its first-hand account of events, is very useful in trying to determine the truths in reference to his life and times.

His account of events, i.e. killings, has to be tempered with the knowledge that he was a convicted murderer of a lawman and, apparently, prisons are full of characters who never did anything wrong. That is, at least, what they'd have us believe.

Some historians hold he was a cold-blooded killer and others feel he was a Confederate hero, who did his best to kill Blue-bellies of the North, who were persecuting Texans in the years after the Civil War. The facts, although they will probably never be uncovered at this late date, probably fall somewhere in the middle ground.

All who know the facts of John Wesley Hardin agree on one thing: he was deadly with a six shooter.

This was an interesting book, if the reader is trying to get a feel for what life was like in some areas of rural Texas after the Civil War. I didn't read it expecting a book by a polished author, so the somewhat stilted writing didn't bother me. But I do live in the area where John Wesley Hardin traveled during his life and know it was a rough period in history.

After finishing the book, it wasn't the numerous killings that effected me, but more of a realization of how and why many people were so angry during reconstruction. The book shows the point of view from the perspective of people who felt they definitely had grievances against the authoritative northern backed policies. John Wesley Hardin backed his extreme views with his gun.

There were several other interesting things in the book, such as: the loyalty of rural families, the struggle to earn a decent wage, the difficulties of traveling over large areas, the excessive drinking and gambling, and finally, the way he managed to survive so long while being hunted, (knowing exactly who to trust, who would help him, and who to stay away from).

Thus I came away with far more from the book than just reading about a notorious outlaw. I read about a time in Texas told by a violent man who lived through much of it. And as he slipped back into his old way of life, in saloons and gambling around other dangerous men, he paid the same price as his victims.

The original manuscript of this book was discovered after John Wesley Hardin's death. He was shot in the back of the head while standing at the bar in the Acme Saloon by John Selman in El Paso on August 19th, 1895. This book was published a year later by Smith & Moore Publishing in Sequin, Guadalupe County, Texas. It sold, in paperback, for fifty cents each.

Hardin was one of the real, genuine hard cases, in those days. It is said that he killed at least a score of men. By some accounts, it was at least 40.

Hardin was born in 1853, the son of a Methodist preacher, who proudly christened him after their faith's founder. No doubt he was expected to follow a spiritual path. It was not to be. He killed his first man, a freed negro who was full of his new freedom, and was going to chastise Hardin with a club out of anger for losing a wrestling match to the boy and his cousin the day before. Hardin killed him with a revolver.

Texas was administered at the time--immediately after the War between the States--by Northern carpetbaggers, and Hardin's life as an outlaw commenced.

He was captured, eventually, in Florida by Texas Rangers and brought back to Texas where he served time in prison. He was obviously intelligent and more literate than the average. After his release, he became a lawyer, and so his autobiography reads well, with probably no more self-justification and self-aggrandizement than most autobiographies.

It is said that he had his pockets lined with leather, so that he could carry his pistols without wearing out his clothing. Not a carry method conducive to the idiotic Hollywood myth of the "fast draw."

John Wesley Hardin was a dangerous man with an ungovernable temper. His story, as told by himself, is more literate than most and highly readable. How well it adheres to the absolute truth is anyone's guess.

I found it most interesting.

Joseph Pierre
author, Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance

I really enjoyed this book. I fancy myself an amatuer old west historian who actually knew very little about Hardin (just the rumors). And while the book is somewhat self-serving (he never seemed to kill a man that needed killing - at least not in his eyes) - it is a great read. It seems he was half filled with hate which was fueled by his temper, while the other half was chock full of loyalty to friends and family. I think in today's world, JWH would have either been a homicidal maniac or a productive, loyal citizen (with some anger management classes). Let me step down off my soapbox, so you can get to reading....I am currently reading Dark Angel of Texas (JWH)...so far, so good.

Being from East Texas I'd heard a lot of stories of John Wesley Hardin. The first book I read was John Carlos Blake's "The Pistoleer," which is excellent. I bought the autobiography immediately afterward and compared the two. Wes Hardin writes very honestly and never appologizes for his actions. Being on the run from the age of 15 until he went to prison in his mid-twenties he always felt he had no choice and was only defending himself given the political climate of the reconstruction era in Texas. It is a narrative and you can almost imagine John Wesley Hardin sitting across from you in a smokey saloon and telling you his story over a game of poker and a big bottle of whiskey. This is a must for any western history buff; especially a native Texan.

Although this book is far from objective and the author tries to justify the many murders that he commited, this is still a good book for someone interested in western history or western gunfighters. John Wesley Hardin was possibly the most notorious and most prolific killer of the era.
While this book is not the most objective it does give a good insight into the subject's thinking. It is also the only way to track Mr. Hardin through some periods of his life

How could I not give 5 stars to a crack-shot gunslinger who murdered numerous men then became a lawyer and actually wrote a book about his violent life?
I've read the other reviews so I will try not to repeat anything you've already read. It's rumored John W. Hardin didn't write the book! Considering what I already said about becoming a lawyer I can't see how he wouldn't have been able to write it himself. I'm not sure when he started or how long it took him but he was able to pinpoint some of the dates so I'd have to say he kept some kind of a diary or guessed in order to appear more authentic.
If/when you read the book maybe you'll notice his writing seems to get better as the book progresses. At the beginning some paragraphs last more than a couple pages with him changing the subject throughout. Well before the end, however, the writing improves greatly. But I believe it was all written by the same person because the style didn't really change. Maybe if he had lived longer he would have gone back and re-wrote the earlier part of the book to match the style of the later parts when he became more educated.
I remember hearing how he "was so mean he once shot a man for snoring." Hardin never mentions this but I believe it was the part about killing the guy who tried to sneak into his room to take his pants and then fleeing in his underwear and running around trying to elude Wild Bill Hickok and his men. Seems if Hardin killed the guy for the reason he specified he wouldn't have needed to run away especially since he and Wild Bill shared a respect for one another.
His point of view on all the events may have not have been 100% true but it tends to validate the type of person he was... And it's all in his own words.

This is the book that John Wesley Hardin and his lover, the wild, drunken Beulah M'Rose, were laboring to write during Hardin's final weeks of life in El Paso, 1895. M'Rose was apparently an educated woman, and Hardin was no idiot- he was a kind of jack leg lawyer when he was killed- but neither of them are Tolstoy. The writing is labored, workmanlike. But it is still the story of John Wesley Hardin, told in his own words and it is fascinating and instructive. "As you bend a twig, it will grow," Hardin writes, "and so I grew up a rebel."
And what a rebel he was, at least for a few short years. Growing to manhood in central Texas in the years follwoing the Civil War, Hardin was among a group of people who were truly oppressed, even if, by some standards, they deserved to be. Federal law ruled, enforced by recently freed slaves given arms and authority, and encouraged to use both by federal officals who still burned for vengeance. Texas citizens had no representation, no hope of justice for any grievances. Self-defense meant battle.
And Hardin was very good at that.

There are stories told here that truly make you understand how a man like Hardin is made and forged. At age eight, Hardin witnesses his frst murder- a poor old man hounded by a younger wealthier man for a debt he could not pay, fights his way through a crowd, draws a Bowie, and slashes his tormentor's throat. Honor fulfilled. Debts paid in blood. At 13, Hardin repeatedly stabs Charles Sloter at school, after Sloter chalked some offensive graffiti on the wall and accused Hardin of the deed. Sloter almost dies, and the teachers agree that Hardin did the right thing. "I proved it up on him..." writes Hardin.

And on alot of others. In Hardin's words, it was all justifiable, if, at times, rendered a bit extreme, even for him, (as he confesses) by too much pride and way, way too much liquor.

The history is a wild one, truly. Most of it is here, in this short book. The killing of the ex-slave Mage, and the pursuit by the federals that left four of them dead. The spree of killing- wilder than any movie- on the cattledrive to Abilene, and the face off with Wild Bill Hickok, and the murder of Charlie Cougar, the bounty killings, the unfortunate circus strongman at the bonfire. The Sutton- Taylor Feud. Lynchings, shootings, weeks on the run in every weather, always ready, often drunk, exhausted, still ready.

As was the way of books of the time, it's both a celebration of violence and a cautionary morality tale- for his few years of fighting and killing and obstinacy, Hardin spends decades in prison, flogged for escape attempts, tortured by old wounds and illness. He lost his wife, his health, and all that remained of his youth.

The real miracle is that this book was ever written at all. And it helps, if the reader is imaginative, to understand how it was written, and under what type of duress. Hardin and M'Rose were holed up in hotel rooms in El Paso, drinking and fighting incessantly. Beulah was married to a local badman, who was, conveniently, found murdered over the bridge in Juarez. Beulah often wandered the streets drunk after nights in the saloons with Hardin, who had quit practicing law and was living on gambling, and bar tabs, and writing in the afternoons, drinking and causing trouble all night. Beulah, raving drunk one morning, was confronted by El Paso lawman, young John Selman, Jr, and disarmed, relieved of two Colt .41 revolvers, an action that led to a feud between Selman, Jr. and Hardin. And that, of course, was the reason that John Selman, Sr.- a hard as nails lawman in his fifties who had been both a raider, an outlaw, and a Texas Ranger in his day- tracked Hardin down at the Acme Saloon and shot him to death before he could make good on his threats to John, Jr.

Selman was in turn murdered by his fellow lawman George Scarborough, who was in turn murdered by Wild Bunch member Harvey Logan a few years later.

Want to understand a wild time, a wild man, and a wild place? Read this book. You'll come away with a wide range of new things to think about.

Hal Herring