Requesting a Western

[John Boylan]

  Steven Maas nominates the 1974 Clint Eastwood film, THE OUTLAW JOSEY
WALES, as the "very best western ever" and further goes on to opine,
"I haven't read the book, if there is one, but I would imagine it's good."
  Well, there is indeed a book, and, not having read it, I can't comment
on its quality. I do know a bit about the author, however -- Asa Carter,
the notorious Klan terrorist of the 1950's.
  The organization he ran in Alabama was involved in the beating of Nat
King Cole, castrating a black man, bombings, etc. He had shot two of his
followers who questioned the way he disposed of funds.
  In the 60's he went on to a new career as George Wallace's speechwriter.
  The movie, though exciting and well-made, is also a dicey piece of work,
with its noble Conferedate guerrillas and visciously treacherous Union sol-
diers, and it's gunman hero based on the racist, anti-Reconstuction Texas
killers John Wesley Hardin and Wild Bill Longley.


                                                 --John Boylan