| About
Ben K. Green Ben King "Doc" Green, (1912-1974)
was a writer from Texas. A unique figure in the literature of the West
and storyteller, Green captured both public and critical acclaim, and was
known for his caustic wit which could be as piercing as a bullet. As a dedicated
veterarian and scientist he authored several landmark publications in equine studies. A
horse trader and rustic raconteur, he was born in Hopkins County, Texas, near
Cumby where his parents, David Hugh and Bird King Green, had lived several generations.
At twelve years of age, Ben left home "ahorseback" and sought out wagon
yards, mule barns and livery stables, a more useful education in his mind. Within
a few years, Green and his family moved to Weatherford, Texas, where he attended
high school, but his days as a "wild, young cowboy" buying, selling
and trading stock fueled his imagination more than formal learning. As an adult
he practiced veterinary medicine, though apparently without a degree. In
1960, Green contributed several of his horse trading stories to the Tally Book,
publication for the Fort Worth International Quarter Horse Jockey Club, and he
determined that writing about his experiences would be his goal. Green "talked
his books," as he said, telling his stories into a tape recorder and to his
secretary who edited his work. "Doc," the cowboy and horse trader, wrote
exactly like he talked, and his spellbinding tales which had fascinated acquaintances
and strangers alike launched the writer, Ben K. Green. While attending a
meeting of the Western History Association held in El Paso, Texas, Green met a
New York editor who had seen his recent story, "Gray Mules," published
in the Southwest Review (Summer, 1965). From that association came Horse Tradin'
(1967), the first of four books by Ben K. Green published by Alfred A. Knopf.
The twenty-fifth printing in 1990 of Horse Tradin' by Knopf hailed this edition
of Green's stories as a classic of Western Americana, and it is his best-known
book today. As the popularity of his stories spread nationwide, Ben thoroughly
enjoyed his fan mail and the lecture circuit. Old yarn-spinner Ben K. Green, a
colorful man in character and language, published eleven books from 1963 to 1974.
His contemporary, writer A. C. Greene, praised Ben's stories, saying, "I
think he represented the last real voice of old-time Texas in literature." NOTE:
In March 2008, school teacher, Ross Capurro from Idaho, found out the copyright
was available for this book and wanted to make it available for everyone to enjoy
so he had it reprinted. We are appreciative of the opportunity to partner with
Ross in helping him bring this collection of classic Western Tales by "Doc"
Green back to the market. About:
Joe Beeler: (1931 - 2006) A pioneer in the field of contemporary
Western art, and a founding member of the Cowboy Artists of America, Beeler has
combined a lifetime of experience on the range with formal art training at Tulsa
university and the Art Center School of Design in California to become one the
nation’s preeminent artists working in western genre today. Whether
sitting at his easel or in the saddle, Joe Beeler has always enjoyed telling a
good story and nowhere is that more apparent than through his art. A self confessed
romantic, he strives to go beyond just technique and convey feeling and mood in
both his painting and sculpture. While much of his subject matter is contemporary,
Beeler particularly enjoys creating historical scenes. Much of his reference material
comes from his personal collection of Indian artifacts, cowboy paraphernalia and
an extensive library of western books. A native of Joplin, Missouri with
a hefty dose of Cherokee blood, Beeler’s keen interest in the West manifested
itself through his childhood drawings, impressions he experienced while growing
up in an area rich with colorful history and the enduring pioneer spirit. His
professional career began in illustration at the University of Oklahoma Press.
From there, he pursued a career as a full time artist. After a stint in
Korea with Uncle Sam, Beeler met and married Sharon McPherson in the summer of
1956. Back in Osage country after just a year out West, the Beelers settled in
a small rural cabin where Joe struggled to paint for a living with time off daily
to shoot something for supper. Tough times measure a man’s mettle. Beeler
painted neighboring ranchers’ prize bulls and horses, and worked tirelessly
on more meaningful pieces in the tradition of his hero, Charlie Russell. Recognition
came slow, but it came, and in 1961 the Beelers left the Oklahoma hills for the
red rocks of Sedona, Arizona. With new country and fresh inspiration, Beeler’s
talent quickened to a gallop. In 1965, he helped found the Cowboy Artists
of America, an organization credited with much of the popularity of western art
today. From that association of like-minded people flows a stream of fine art
works that are eagerly anticipated and commercially successful.
About
William Moyers (b. 1916)
A member and three-time president
of the Cowboy Artists of America since 1968, and now a member Emeritus, William
Moyers is a painter and sculptor of western subjects. At the age of fourteen,
Moyers came to Colorado with his father, a lawyer, who placed him with a family
of five boys on a ranch. He worked his way through high school and college as
a cowboy and ranch hand, and began selling pictures of bucking horses for 25 cents
each. In 1939, Moyers graduated with a degree in fine arts from Adams State
Teachers College in Alamosa and later studied at the Otis Art Institute in Los
Angeles, California with E. Roscoe Shraeder, a pupil of illustrator Howard Pyle.
To earn extra money, Moyers worked at Walt Disney Studios for a year on the movie
“Fantasia.” In 1943, he and Neva married. She served in the Navy
and Moyers in the Army during World War II. They then lived in New York City where
Moyers began to do illustration, winning an American Artist magazine competition
for illustrating an Owen Wister novel. His career took off, and Neva handled the
business side, although she stayed in the Navy until his success was obvious.
The couple then moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where Moyers did over 200 illustration
assignments. There, they had four children, two of whom are artists - John, also
a member of the Cowboy Artists of America, and Charles, a sculptor. Moyers’
work is in numerous major collections including the Gilcrease Institute in Tulsa,
Oklahoma, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the Albuquerque
Museum in New Mexico and the Cowboy Artists of America at Kerrville, Texas. He
has won many gold and silver medals and can be found in prestigious publications
including “Cowboy in Art” by Harmsen and “Bronzes of the American
West,” by Patricia Broder. His work is highly realistic, combined with
an emotional involvement with the subject, and follows the tradition of Charles
Russell and Frederic Remington. “I paint what I do,” Moyers observes,
“because I find the working cowboy, past and present, such a harmonious outgrowth
of his whole environment. He accepts the action, weather, loneliness, and responsibilities
as a normal existence. Too, there is a lot of nostalgia in it for me—a chance
to recapture something of which I can no longer be a part.” He and
his wife Neva live in their home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, surrounded by the
artifacts of their long life together. About:
John Hampton (1918 - 1999) Painter and sculpture or the
Old West, born in New York City in 1918 and living in Scottsdale, Arizona. “I
loved old Tom Mix movies,” he remembers. “All boys are interest in cowboys,
but most of ‘em outgrow it after they get practical minded…yet. I like
to paint the romance of the West, not somebody getting a saddlesore or a hernia.” After
practicing roping with his mother’s clothesline in Brooklyn, Hampton won
first prize in a rodeo sketching contest in 1935. He began illustrating Western
pulp magazines while he was in high school and serves in Intelligence in World
War II. On the proceeds of assisting Fred Harman in drawing the comic strip, “Red
Ryder,” Hampton bought a small ranch near Silver City, New Mexico, and “became
a one-cow cowboy,” in order to act out the life so he could draw it. The
experience he gained was part of the credo of the Cowboy Artists of America helped
form. He says that “it has to be a part of the recipe that to depict range
life correctly, the artist had to know how to do some cowpunchin’. It’s
as simple as that. And this half-breed cross between an artist and a cowboy produces
a cowboy-artist.” After “we set the stage,” he observes, “young
kids, today, are making a killing in Western art.” In 1977, Hampton
tried his first bronze and promptly won the gold medal at the cAA show. He now
“likes doing bronzes” because he can “keep one for himself”
and “the money is better than in paintings.” |
