New Spun Yarns From Across the Big Divide

Book excerpt: Will Rogers wrote, "Charlie Russell is the only author a true cowboy can't find fault with." Rogers also considered Charlie America's best story teller, cowboy humorist, and sagebrush philosopher. Though Charlie was under-schooled and semi-literate, his salty Rawhide Rawlins yarns still delight readers almost nine decades after he "crossed the big divide." Richard Baker has long striven to bring Russell's wit, humor, cynicism, and horse sense back to life. In this collection of Western yarns, Mr. Baker utilizes Charlie Russell as his narrator, depicting Charlie telling yarns in his personal style, utilizing ample dry humor expressed in colorful cowboy lingo. These yarns cover many facets of late-nineteenth-century cowboy life, the good times and the hardships, the joys and sorrows, and above all, the humor and good nature of the western folk icon, the American cowboy. This book is a must for fans of cowboy humor, salty western metaphors, and sagebrush philosophy.