Jane Coleman Tells The Other Half Of The Tale Of Taming The West.
By Emil Franzi
JANE CANDIA COLEMAN was born and raised in Pennsylvania,
but was always a real Westerner at heart. Fortunately, she's also
a born storyteller, and Moving On is a collection of some
of her best work. Two of these stories--"Lou" and "Are
You Coming Back, Phin Montana?"--have already won Spur Awards
from the Western Writer's of America. Moving On has been
nominated for both a Western Heritage Award and a Pulitzer Prize.
Coleman shows both the frontier and current West through a host
of female characters that've been ignored by many Western writers.
She discusses subjects and people rarely thought of until recently,
from inter-racial marriage on the frontier to the actions of the
widows of those killed in those popularized gunfights. And she
represents a breed of genuine feminism that has nothing to do
with "politically correct," to be read with enjoyment
by the most macho followers of Louis L'Amour. In fact, many of
these stories first appeared in Louis L'Amour Western Magazine.
Her ladies are strong characters, the kind that kill their own
snakes.
Coleman is also the author of the historical novel Doc Holliday's
Woman, a work about Big Nosed Kate that sheds considerable
light on not only her life, but on those she came in contact with,
specifically the Earp clan.
Coleman lives in eastern Cochise County, with the nearest mailbox
at Rodeo, Mew Mexico. That doesn't quite qualify her as a local
author, but then you never know what the City of Tucson has on
a secret annexation map. That she's one of the more relevant writers
in Southern Arizona is without question.
|