The Writers of the Purple Wage have long since taken the last trail into dusty memory. But, now, they live again--to retell tall tales of those distant days when they helped forge the fabled West of American Imagination. They're all here! * The POPULAR hacks! * The SPICY bestsellers! * The THRILLING myths! Those amazing million-words-a-year men! True Westerners born on the Range! Broadway cowboys never West of Hoboken! Join MAX BRAND, LUKE SHORT, JOHNSTON McCULLEY, ERNEST HAYCOX, WALT COBURN, FRANK GRUBER, RYERSON JOHNSON, & a hard-working, fast-drawing posse of freelance fictioneers! And those two-fisted foremen of New York's fiction factories-magazine editors FRANK BLACKWELL, ROGERS TERRILL, LEO MARGULIES, ROBERT LOWNDES & FANNY ELLSWORTH! Together, IN THEIR OWN WORDS, these veteran pulpsters & others offer startling inside stories of how they created the mythology of the Golden West! * Blazing action! Savage characterization! Real emotion! Ride with the Old West's top gunhands, greatest pulpsmiths & legendary brands. From BUFFALO BILL, DEADWOOD DICK & HOPALONG CASSIDY to GUNSMOKE & LOUIS L'AMOUR, this is their saga. Armed with forgotten interviews, controversial essays & candid letters first not seen in generations, acclaimed pulp historian Will Murray, author of The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage. reveals the epic life & frequent deaths of the Pulp West! WORDSLINGERS: AN EPITAPH FOR THE WESTERN