{"id":42467,"date":"2025-09-25T10:55:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/42467\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T10:55:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:55:19","slug":"yee-haw-rediscover-this-forgotten-western","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/42467\/","title":{"rendered":"Yee-haw! Rediscover this forgotten western"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where have all the westerns gone? The chaos, blood and contorted glory of the Old West have always attracted writers. The grand canvas of that period in America\u2019s history leaves room for all forms: the popular stories of Zane Grey, the epic Lonesome Dove<\/a> series by Larry McMurtry, Cormac McCarthy\u2019s biblical bloodbaths<\/a>, even the dazzling poetry of Michael Ondaatje\u2019s The Collected Works of Billy the Kid.<\/p>\n

The genre seems to have faded, bar the occasional treat like Kevin Barry\u2019s The Heart in Winter<\/a>. But there are plenty of older stories to give new life to, such as the newly reissued The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones (1956) by Charles Neider, an American writer who was born in 1915 in what is now Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Hendry Jones\u2019s story is loosely based on the life and death of the notorious Wild West outlaw Billy the Kid; indeed, in the book our antihero is known only as \u201cthe Kid\u201d. But he lived, so we\u2019re told, after Billy and after Wild Bill Hickok, so we are probably in the late 19th century. And it\u2019s a story about violence and death, but also about what happens when someone famous dies.<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

Wild Bill Hickok, 1837-1876<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

At the start of the story the Kid \u2014 a cool-hearted, sharp-shooting marksman, \u201cthe greatest gunman alive at the time of his death\u201d \u2014 has died, but his legend lives on. We are in the hands of his old friend \u201cDoc\u201d Baker, who tells us about the feeding frenzy round relics connected to the Kid. \u201cYou can buy a hundred guns supposed to have been his,\u201d he says, and people even claim the Kid\u2019s trigger finger was removed from his body before burial and preserved in alcohol.<\/p>\n

Then we go back to learn more about the man, but Neider isn\u2019t about to let the guns go blazing just yet. For the first third of the book the Kid is in jail, his killings having caught up with him, and in solitary confinement on death row. \u201cHe went to the window again. Out there in the middle of the plaza was where they planned to hang him Saturday at 9 o\u2019clock.\u201d <\/p>\n

Still, he doesn\u2019t seem too bothered \u2014 it\u2019s almost as though he has a plan. He taunts one of his jailers that by Monday he will be miles away. \u201cOh yeah?\u201d replies the other. \u201cAnd where will I be?\u201d \u201cRight here. Wondering what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Read more book reviews and interviews \u2014 and see what\u2019s top of the Sunday Times Bestsellers List<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no spoiler to say the Kid does escape. After all, as the reader knows \u2014 even if the Kid doesn\u2019t \u2014 his legend depends upon a violent death. The scene where he breaks out of jail and the aftermath is tremendously well done with the reader pulled along by winding sentences that predict McCarthy and blend action and thinking.<\/p>\n

\"Charles<\/p>\n

Charles Neider on his horse Chico in 1952<\/p>\n

COURTESY SUSAN M. NEIDER<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s more: while the Kid was on death row his sweetheart, Nika, married someone called Miguel. Once the Kid escapes, he\u2019s off to find her. \u201cI wasn\u2019t supposed to be dead until Saturday and you got married on Wednesday,\u201d he tells her. He\u2019s got a point. And you wouldn\u2019t fancy Miguel\u2019s chances.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty more violence and bloodshed to come, but The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones is also about the country that made him. \u201cSome say you\u2019re bad for this country,\u201d someone tells him. \u201cThat it\u2019s time it grew up.\u201d And so it did \u2014 for a while. <\/p>\n

We get insight into our man\u2019s psychology too, and it\u2019s the woman who loved him that digs deepest. We find out that the Kid doesn\u2019t know where he was born or who his mother is. He\u2019s all front because he doesn\u2019t dare look behind it.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Clare Chambers: Everyone should read this 800-page western<\/a><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s our narrator, \u201cDoc\u201d Baker, who is reassuring and confident, but is he reliable? After he shares one climactic scene, he mentions, almost as an aside, that he was \u201casleep when all this happened\u201d. And he jumps into and out of other people\u2019s viewpoints a bit too conveniently. It serves to remind us that when legends are created a good story always trumps the truth.<\/p>\n

Hendry Jones was such a seductive story that five years after it was published Marlon Brando adapted it into his only film as director: One-Eyed Jacks. Some elements were lost, others added. The Kid was renamed Rio and wore his gun in a cummerbund. Neider, a stickler for authenticity, was asked what he thought about that. \u201cFirst time he\u2019d draw that gun,\u201d Neider said, \u201che\u2019d blow his balls off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones by Charles Neider (McNally Jackson \u00a313.99). To order a copy go to timesbookshop.co.uk<\/a>. Free UK standard P&P on orders over \u00a325. Special discount available for Times+ members<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Where have all the westerns gone? The chaos, blood and contorted glory of the Old West have always…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-42467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}