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The Shootist

Glendon Fred Swarthout

2006160 pagesabout 2–4 hours
2006
first published
  • 1975Doubleday · 186 pages · ENGISBN 9780385060998
  • 1975Secker and Warburg · 186 pages · ENGISBN 9780436508356
  • 1975G. K. Hall · 273 pages · ENGISBN 9780816163113
  • 1976Pan Macmillan · 160 pages · ENGISBN 9780330248112
  • 2011University of Nebraska Press · 215 pages · ENGISBN 9780803238237
  • 2006Center Point Large Print · 208 pages · ENGISBN 9781585477715
  • 1986Signet · ENGISBN 9780451144959
  • 1999Bt BoundISBN 9780613175081

A shootist is what later came to be called a gunman, a killer, in the early days of the lawless Wild West. This is the story of one such gunman, who is dying of cancer in a rooming house in El Paso. When news gets around of his approaching death, everyone wants to be in at the end, and wheel around him like vultures, not quite hesitating to keep their distance. The book is a marvel of brevity, filled with unforgettable portraits of the shootist, his landlady and her son, as well of the lesser cameos. The ending is without parallel.

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