Author: Clifford Caldwell
My interests in Western History really began when I was a boy. At age thirteen I had a shoeshine stand at a local barbershop, and poured every penny I made into books and cowboy collectibles. Writing never occurred to me until many many years later, when I began to do research on a couple of old firearms that I had purchased for my collection. The information I uncovered was fascinating, but more than anything I enjoyed the process of doing the research and writing down the stories. If you truly have a love of history, and the old west, it’s easy to imagine yourself involved in the stories and become the characters. I have been fortunate enough to have traveled over practically every square inch of each and every location where the stories I have written took place.
Having been a collector of western and cowboy memorabilia for many years now I occasionally find myself day dreaming about the history of a particular item in my collection. Perhaps it's an old Colt Single Action revolver, or maybe a Winchester Carbine. It could be an old A fork saddle or a pair of leather cuffs, a riata, a pair of well worn chaps, or a branding iron. All of these items have particular beauty when left in their natural state, wearing their work clothes with the soil, tarnish and sweat of the last old cowboy to have used them for the final time and tossed them into the corner.
In my book Old West Tales I give the reader a glimpse of life in the old west. The characters are not from the usual list of suspects, most of whom have been written about ad nauseam. They are the folks who made up the real old west. The town marshals, sheriffs and outlaws who were not famous enough to make it to the silver screen. The inspiration for most of the stories came from the real life history of these characters. Some real people, some fictional. Some lived at the time, and in the places where these stories take place. Some did not. Some are almost entirely fictional. They will make you laugh, cry, and experience every emotion in between. All are entertaining.
My most recent book is - Dead Right– The Lincoln County War is a concise, and factual interpretation of the people, places and events of the Lincoln County War. This book focuses on the events that led up to the inevitable conflict, some of the characters, and much of what factual information gathered through research, interviews, and from published and unpublished material. The book is formatted in a manner that the reader should find useful. It contains a chronology of events, a listing of all the major Regulators, of Dolan’s Men, and of the Lawmen. It lists the highlights of what is known about each of them. The chronology of crucial events contained in the book can be used as a guide and point of reference.
