James D. Best

For the last couple of decades, enthusiasts have lamented the demise of Westerns. The rest of the world went about their business, ignoran...

  “The fascination that the Old West has will never die." John Wayne The mythology of the Old West has been denigrated by the people wh...

Thomas Edison was a much more complex person than generally realized.  The Wizard of Menlo Park was a character in the Steve Dancy Tale   ,...

I loved to ski, and my favorite mountain is Mammoth, California. When a friend owned a condo, I also skied the perfectly groomed slopes a...

Robert Duvall is one of my favorite Western actors. (Others on my list include John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Tom Selleck, Gene Hackman, Sam...

Western writers are like other fiction writers in that they have super powers. They can bend time, compress space, and sweep away boring pe...

Shane is one of my favorite Western films. The Jack Schaefer book is also one of my favorite Western novels. There are great films and...

John Wayne was a lucky man. As the leading man in 142 films, he had the honor of working with somewhere near 142 leading ladies. Ink Tank do...

John Wayne was not only a great star, he was a king maker. Louis L'Amour had been selling well, but was hardly a household name prior ...

A review of Hollywood productions and published fiction might lead the casual observer to believe that the traditional hero is dead. The an...