Best of Tucson 1996: Best Posthumous Local Author

Best Posthumous Local Author

STAFF PICK: In 1874, George Hand, a former Union army sergeant, opened a saloon at the corner of Meyer Avenue and Mesilla Street, near where the Holiday Inn is today. This saloon remained in operation for a number of years, during which Hand kept a diary recounting the diurnal life of frontier Tucson. These diary entries, previously published in expurgated form by The Arizona Daily Star, have now been collected in a book, Whiskey, Six-Guns & Red-Light Ladies, published by High-Lonesome Books. The rather unfortunate Hollywood title and gaudy cover illustration belie the contents: stunning insights into the human condition rendered in a stark prose that's part Hemingway and part haiku. Hand's diary provides a rare and truthful glimpse--unfettered by legend and myth--into the soul of a western town. A few sample entries should suffice: January 1, 1875--"I got very tight today." January 2, 1875--"Sober today.... Walker is drunk. Dave Davis is drunk." January 18, 1875--"I took too much juice today. Went to bed full." January 19, 1875--"Got up at 8 o'clock. Took one drink and was tight. Kept drinking till 11 a.m." January 24, 1875--"Had only one drink before breakfast." February 12, 1875--"Fine day. Got tight early...12 o'clock...drunker. Three o'clock...quite sober, but got drunk again. 9 in the evening...very tight."

...Just goes to show that not much has changed in Tucson in the past 121 years.