Title:

The Shootist

Author:

Glendon Swarthout

Category:

Literature

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

January 31, 2025

think that The Shootist is on the list of classic western novels, in the vein of True Grit, The Virginian, and Shane. A "Shootist" is an old time word for gunfighter, it was not a complementary term, synonymous with man-killer or assassin. The shootist in this story is J. B. Books - a unrepentant man who rides into El Paso in 1901. He was seeking a doctor to give him a diagnosis about a crippling pain in his nether regions. When the doctor examines him, the answer is brutal - metastatic prostate cancer, Books has just weeks to live before facing an incredibly agonizing death. The doctor says: I won’t put it in so many words. It runs counter to the ethics of my profession. But I would not die a death such as I have described. Not if I had your courage. I would not. And especially your skill with weapons.

Books rents a room from the widow Bond Rogers. He knows El Paso is where he will breathe his last. Rogers has a seventeen year old son named Gillom who is tempted by the vices of El Paso: card games in saloons, fancy women upstairs, and especially violence and gun play. When the Rogers family learns the true identity of their newest boarder, Bond is afraid and angry, while Gillom is mesmerized and attracted to the ailing gunfighter. Books is notorious, reputedly with thirty men dead at his hand. Soon everyone in El Paso knows that the infamous killer is in town.

The marshall knows that violence frequently follows killers like Books, so he visits the dying man in his boarding room. The marshall mentions several other violent bad men already in El Paso, and doesn't want to add Books to the volatile situation. He offers to buy Books a train ticket to leave town, but Books has no where to go and knows that he will die in El Paso. The only remaining question is the manner of his passing.

A string of visitors come to see Books - a reporter, a preacher, an undertaker, a photographer, even a barber - they all want to profit from the impending death of such a famous man. The reporter offers to write a biography of Books' life, filling the narrative with invented tales of gunfights. The preacher hopes Books will sign a document renouncing his violent ways and inspire the youth of America toward a better life. The undertaker will embalm Books and put him on display, charging 50 cents for each person who wishes to view the body. The photographer will sell copies of the photograph. Even the barber, who collects the clipped hair, will profit by selling the carefully collected strands.

As the pain intensifies and Books weakens, he knows his final hour is soon upon him. He reflects upon his violent life and regrets some his choices. His has been a solitary road, friendless and brutal. His interaction with the widow Bond and her wayward son Gillom reveal their character. Bond regrets her harsh judgement of Books at the beginning, while Gillom slips further down the slope of lawlessness.

The Shootist was made into a movie in 1976, starring John Wayne, who ironically was suffering from cancer himself that would eventually kill him. It would be his last movie role. If I can find the movie, I should watch it. Wayne apparently objected to some of the scenes which portrayed Books character, so the movie version is less violent than the book, and Books and Gillom are seen in a better light.