Rex, Ben & More
Born in rural Michigan, Rex Beach’s dad moved the family to Tampa. He studied law but gave it up to go prospecting in the Alaska Klondike Gold Rush. He did not strike it rich. He was a member of the Silver Medal 1904 Olympic Water Polo team. He served as the first president of the Rollins College (Florida) Alumni Association. At 72, two years after his wife’s death, he took his own life. In 1904 he began writing and published a short story collection. He followed that with a novel, The Spoilers, drawn from his experiences as a prospector, based on a true story. An old hardcover copy recently came my way. I would categorize it as adventure ala Jack London. The title refers to a group, backed by politicians, who try to steal mines from their owners, and the legal and physical fight that ensues. Although it is written in difficult pre-modern prose, it is a compelling story well-told. I found its political incorrectness refreshing, especially hrough the main character’s elderly partner. I looked forward to picking it up until the very end. Its 310 pages read as exactly that, as each leaf is shorter than that of most books and the print size reasonable. 42 users at Amazon have rated The Spoilers, forging to a consensus of 4.2 on a scale of five. I’ll go with 3.5. It has been reprinted in hardcover as recently as 2021. Beach had a long run, publishing more than 30 books and writing plays. Wiki lists 36 screen adaptations of his works. The Spoilers has been produced five times, the last in ’55. Gary Cooper (1930) and John Wayne (1942) each played the rugged lead. Photo of Mr. Beach from Google Images:
I’ve said this before. Every time I thought I would never again hear anything fresh about WWII, something new to me pops up. Last night the Story channel, 31–2 on OTA in NYC, ran a piece on the Bataan Death March, only one of Japan’s WWII atrocities. Viewing induces anger. That country still has a lot of atonement due. Anyone who believes that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were wrong may rethink his/her opinion upon watching the horror inflicted on POWs, thousands of whom perished, not to mention the so-called Rape of Nanjing in China. What the hell caused this and Nazi and Commie madness? How did greater majorities come to believe such atrocities were justified? Then again, it’s happening on a so far smaller scale these days. It is scary to contemplate the thought of falling under such a spell. It is so easy to say: “Oh, no, not me” without having been put to the test. Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Montana native Ben Steele, a PFC in the United States Army Air Forces, survived. An artist, he drew sketches from memory post-war. Many of these are now preserved at the MacArthur Memorial. Miraculously, he lived until 98. Photos from GI:
Okay, top this headline from nypost.com: “Notorious Mexican drug cartel boss gunned down in wild shootout after cockfight massacre.” Wait, maybe this, from NYP: “Gotcha! Google Street View catches murder suspect loading body into car: cops.”
Job opportunity, from NYP: “Holy cash cow! Inside the ‘Jesus model’ boom — where Christ lookalikes make an insane amount posing for holiday cards.”
It was a bit colder but still gorgeous today at the Anti-Inflation Book Shop. My thanks to Tanya, who donated a bunch of kids’ books, and to the young mom who bought an entire bag of them at a steep discount; and to the gentleman who purchased three Russian translations of Danielle Steel novels; and to the one who took home two books on Russian churches; and to the woman who chose The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.
My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts
Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza
