The Shootist (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Glendon Swarthout
- First Published: 1975
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Western fiction
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Death or dying, Fame, Southwest, Heroes or heroism, Westerns, Outlaws, Texas, 1900’s
- Locales: Texas
The Shootist is as much a story of the end of the Old West as it is the story of John Bernard Books, the last famous living gunman, whose passing will mark the end of an era. On January 22, 1901, the day of the English queen Victoria's death, Books rides into El Paso, Texas, to consult a doctor he trusts, only to discover that he is dying of cancer of the prostate—inoperable, incurable, and unimaginably painful. Books cannot move on; he has come to the end of the road in El Paso, but clearly he is an unwanted anachronism. The town, represented by Marshal Thibido, would be more...
[The entire page is 1183 words long]
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