Tales of Gunsmoke.
TALES OF GUNSMOKE by Don Ward from Gunsmoke Episodes – Western Book Review
“Remember, Chester,” Matt said; “There was never a horse that couldn’t be rode…”
“… nor a man who couldn’t be throwed!” Chester finished.
Matt was checking his gun. He put it back in the holster, eased it out, dropped it back in.
Matt said tightly, “If he does down me, you can use your shotgun on him. Just be careful, if you do.”
The marshal stepped out into the street.
From TALES OF GUNSMOKE by Don Ward
I’m an Old Boomer. So I grew up on Westerns. Thrived on ’em! Movies — new and classic. TV. Books. Even comic books (especially Dell).
TV had so many personal faves. Early on it was The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin and Sergeant Preston of the Yukon (“On, you huskies!”). Later, Have Gun, Will Travel. Riverboat. Wyatt Earp. Maverick. Bonanza. And Gunsmoke. Hands down, Gunsmoke was one of the best Westerns of all time. And TV’s #1 Western. Our family certainly gathered around our black-and-white RCA set to watch it every week.
After all these years, I’m still finding Western book titles I missed back in the day. Here’s my latest discovery I want to share with you: TALES OF GUNSMOKE by Don Ward.
Who was Don Ward?
Western writer and editor Don Ward (Donald G Ward, 1911-1984) edited Zane Grey’s Western Magazine for its entire first run (Nov-1946 to Jan-1954). He followed that by editing two short-lived runs of Luke Short’s Western Magazine and Spur Western Novels.
He was a member of the Western Writers of America. As such, he edited three popular WWA fiction anthologies: BRANDED WEST (1956), WILD STREETS: Tales of the Famous Frontier Towns (1958) and HOOF TRAILS AND WAGON TRACKS (1959).
His last Western anthology was STURGEON’S WEST (1973), a collection of “Seven unusual stories of the Old West” by Don’s friend Theodore Sturgeon. Don and Theodore had co-authored some of the stories.
Don Ward also wrote the Western Frontier history title COWBOYS AND CATTLE COUNTRY for the American Heritage Library. Followed by BITS OF SILVER: Vignettes of the Old West for Hastings House — “Vivid narrative history — Gracefully written, handsomely designed, meticulously researched…”
TALES OF GUNSMOKE by Don Ward – a Western Book Review…
This short story collection was originally published as a paperback by Ballantine Books in 1957 as GUNSMOKE — Adventures of Marshal Matt Dillon – “Based on CBS’s Famous TV Program.” Adapted by Don Ward from original episode scripts.
This new edition I’m reviewing, TALES OF GUNSMOKE: Ten thrilling stories from the classic TV series, is from Wildside Press, printed in 2020.
From the beginning, Gunsmoke was special. Was it the characters? The morality tales they told? Both, I think.
They wanted to create an adult series, gritty, hardboiled, realistic.
They wanted to consider some of the hard truths brought back home by a generation of World War Two veterans. Gunsmoke creators Norman Macdonnell and John Meston were WWII vets, as were series writers E Jack Neuman, Sam Peckinpah, Gil Doud and Paul Savage, among others. So was James Arness, who had a leg shattered by German machine gun fire at Anzio. In Gunsmoke, the Civil War was the dramatic source of the same kind of anger, heartbreak and cultural tension.
The stories told in this book are from the half-hour, black-and-white years, 1955, ’56 and ’57. Dennis Weaver’s character is called Chester Proudfoot (the name also used in the radio series) in the first teleplays. He would later be called Chester Goode.
The Gunsmoke scripts were penned by writers including John Meston, E Jack Neuman, Harold Swanton, Les Crutchfield, David Victor, Herbert Little Jr, Gil Doud, Kathleen Hite and Sam Peckinpah. Some yarns in TALES such as “Grass,” “Hickok,” “Jayhawkers” and “There Never Was a Horse” were radio scripts later adapted for television.[1]
And Don Ward turned these into short stories, adding character thoughts, quick descriptions, some backstory and even snippets of frontier history.
And giving us a bona fide Western Classic.
“Get out of Dodge!” thundered Matt Dillon. But the gunfighting badman Cope Borden was fresh out of prison and knew his rights. He had done nothing wrong. He didn’t have to leave. Matt had already saved Borden’s life from a group of good citizens who, wrongly believing him to be horse thief, were about to lynch him.
The story “Hot Spell” sees Matt — who choses above all else to serve the Law — facing down the citizens he thinks of as good men. If the Law is sacred then he must protect Borden a second time and load and use his shotgun against those good men…
Part of the realism of the early Gunsmoke scripts is that they didn’t hide how hard the Old West was on horses. When bullets fly, horses are bigger targets. Sometimes a man will even deliberately shoot a horse to get the rider. Even Matt Dillon did that. The story “Overland Express” starts with Matt, Chester and a captured killer walking to the Fort Downer road, carrying their saddles.
But getting on the Overland stage wasn’t the end of the story.
Could be a bunch of road agents was waiting ahead to get the rich express box. And one of the men in the packed stagecoach was part of the gang. It was going to be a long trip back to Dodge.
This Wildside Press publication is a quality trade paperback and looks good on my homemade pinewood Western bookshelves. On the back cover there’s a photo of Festus Haggen and Matt facing danger together. Festus wasn’t in this book — but it’s a blast seeing him anyway.
Loved this book! It took me back to the days when we avidly gathered around our TV to watch Matt, Miss Kitty, Chester and Doc — and later ol’ Festus. And Sam was still serving the drinks at the Long Branch. I recommend this one!
“Live Free, Mon Ami!” – Brian Alan Burhoe
“I’m all for anything that increases people’s knowledge about these older, mostly forgotten authors.” – Western writer James Reasoner
Westerns and Northwesterns were our National Dramas, our History, our Mythology.
Where we came from and how we became who we are…
==>> For More, You Have Gotta See Our National Mythmakers — The Western Writers
NOTE: “TV’s #1 Western.” Not even the infamous Rural Purge could take out Gunsmoke! But they surely tried. For more, see RURAL PURGE: The Day Hollywood Killed the Great Conservative Comedies & Westerns.
[1] …radio scripts later adapted for television. “Jayhawkers” and “There Never Was a Horse” didn’t appear till the 1959 TV season. “Jayhawkers” was Ken Curtis’ first appearance on Gunsmoke, playing the part of a Texas cowboy named Phil Jacks.
Further Reading:
JAMES ARNESS: An Autobiography by James Arness and James E Wise Jr
THE GUNSMOKE YEARS by John Peel
THE GUNSMOKE CHRONICLES: A New History of Television’s Greatest Western by David R. Greenland
TELEVISION WESTERNS 1950 – 1980 by Lanny Tucker
TALES OF GUNSMOKE by Don Ward from Gunsmoke Episodes – Western Book Review.
To learn more, see Gunsmoke: the Radio & TV Series. And to read a short account of the Life & Works of Don Ward, go to Alabama Authors – Donald G Ward.
UPDATE July 17, 2024. And now we can watch Gunsmoke again. And we are! It’s Free on Pluto TV. If you haven’t already, you can check out Pluto’s Classic TV Channel.
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