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Janet ,-5th
121d cast i,•;entral
HOKARD ih)0SA (1)
14" ote. ra. PA, 4'1 r
0
Interview with
Toward osa.
t
ttoosa said to me, 'I am interested in the work of
lugene ',sallow. Rhodes. I have a copy of each of his books, but only
one first edition. It's practioally impossible to got first editions
of jhodes' work. I know the western representative of Eoughton
nifflin is much interested in -.1hodes and he says the first editions
seem to have disappeared.'
"And it seems just as hard to find any real information about
the man. is far as I know there are no tales —no legend that has grown
_
A
MAR I 7 193?
up about him, as is the case with so many artists and writers. '1?erhaps
that is because of the long period —twenty years I believe --during which
thodes was absent from this country. Before he left he was just a cowboy.
en he came back he was a writer. rlfl during that long hiatus people
had died and things had been forgotten. it may he that there were many
thin- o he would have wished to be forgotten. I have the impression that
there was something mysterious about his leavetaking, although I can't
give any authority for that impression. Anyhow, he was a man who
never seemed to care to talk much about himself."
"I saw :ihodes o ly once. The waT I met him was almost as
curious as the meeting itself. I was staying at IA Jolla which is not
far from iacific .each, California, -...Ahodes home, you know, during his
later years. some to me I heard he had to go to the coast for bronchitis.
anyway, usod to walk to the post office --a distance of two or
tree miles. no day on the way back a man picked me ut, in his car."
.10•241.1.
As was a mice fellow --a nail carrior--and we ot to talkin I told
him 1 was from ''iew agate°, and he told ne that :Algona Hanleyo lhodes
was on his mail route and offered to show ne where he 15ved. I had been
interested in ?Ixodes and in oolleoting his work, so several days later
went to see hill. I remember there was no one home at first, and I had
to wait. before lon7: ho cane in with his wife. Hie wife was a charming
woman -..a very --a
-7 can think of the words I want this mornineas.live,
that's 71t, he was a very alive sort of pereon. he entered into the
conversation, not to monopolize it you understand, but one was always
aware of her presence. A: tried to et Modes to talk about his work,
and himself, but I didn't have much success that way. he talked to me
about some woman in .Jocorro whose writings about this country interested
'an't remora
mom now.
anyway, I wasn't much interested.
:la also talked a t a number of books In which ho was interested.
wish now had .eal the foresiaht to make a list because it would have
thrown light upon his readina ia:terests. aut I didn't and I can't
r.mber one of then* -all current works at the time and none or the
ithibrige that partIoularly interested me. At that time a man in Lea Angeles
was planning to get out a ten -volume edition of :Ailed** work for fifty
dollars. ,e talked about that and Rhodos al.oed with ne that fhe
Little aehippus should have the end inc used in the aturday Areninr;
Zest version rather than the one he gave it in book fora. ho nve me
the ranuscript of '1.1 ;efense of hat ,;arrett'aubl3shed in •.ainset,
20-7, .optenber, 1927 I don't have a veay clear recollection of what
Modes loakod like —that ws about ten years *0 -except that he was a
little man, and he called me '-ieter'-alust
"I don't believe his books ever achieved the popularity that
they deserved. They were too sophisticated for the reader of wild
western tales, and tha more sophisticateireader has a preju:ioe against
wester 4 Elnd cowboy tales.
zrat the cow aye liked his stories. You can't
find a real oldetime cowboy who doesn't swear by Modes. They lat01 at
the average western tile, but 'aiodes is the cowboy's autnor. I remember
Alar15;e Axing() saying that hhodes stories were the real thing."
"rom something I've read of him --I can't reoall just where
have the .mpression that hodes hated the task of composing. was
always very reluctant to get down to the actual writin. I had a
housekeeper who claimed to have known him very well. She said he wrote
lots of ooetry. You know he always signed his poetry 'lens :thodes'. I
believe that his irst inter st in writing was in poetry, and that kt
was some time before he realised that fiction was more his medium. As
poems seontopte*t versifying really, but there is poetry in his novels.
you take that introduction to The Trusty Knaves —about the oats, you
remember—."
t remember my housekeeper saying too that he was always readin.
3ut that wouldn't have been unusual for a cowboy in the old days. They
were all much more literate than people know.
J. believe it was hodes
himsolf who told how they would get real literature from the soap
companies —or maybe it was the coffee companies. i‘nyhows some of these
companies put out coupons which could be redeemed for paperecovered
copies of the classics—Diokens, liakespeare, and so on. Lt was these
paper -covered classics that furnished most of the oawboys' reading
material in the old days."
"I'm sorry that can't give you more information about ihodes,
but I think tht,,t
you would go to see that old housekeeper of mines
rs. (jetio, and get her to talk to you, you might get some very interesting
material".
ITT
41- :•Ora °nal interview with :oward OUh k-nown a,o a oollootor of
:,exioant., 141S) '-',oat :or* Avenue, ,Albuquorve, ow Newt oo.