Oakley Hall essay

[Otto]

I like the Prefatory Note of "Warlock", especially in the light of
some recent discussions here on the list:

"This book is a novel. The town of Warlock and the territory in which
it is located are fabrications. But any relation of the characters to
real persons, living or dead, is not always coincidental, for many are
composites of figures who still live on a frontier between history and
legend.
The fabric of the story, too, is made up of actual events interwoven
with invented ones; by combining what did happen with what might have
happened, I have tried to show what should have happened. Devotees of
Western legend may consequently complain that I have used familiar
elements to construct as fanciful design, and that I have rearranged
or ignored the accepted facts. So I will reiterate that this work is a
novel. The pursuit of truth, not of facts, is the business of
fiction."