Anyone here have an interest in this topic? I've recently collected about 40 of his western paperbacks and have read 24 so far. All but 3 had at least one catfight (some have several catfights). I'm trying to find the best catfights in the approx. 130 or so westerns books he wrote. I can share the titles of what I've read so far. I'm looking for others to share titles of books they've read that I haven't yet come across.
A passing glance at an actual photo of Calamity Jane would douse even the most ardent catfight fan's interest in imagining her in any kind of sexy activity. That being said, history holds that brothel / saloon owner Madame Bulldog physically threw Jane out of her establishment in Virginia City, Nevada one evening. The Madame was no looker either -- hence the nickname.
I agree that the Belle vs. Eve fight is an excellent one - I have that book. One of my favorites is Calam vs. a villainess in Ranch War. The fight is outdoors and ranges all over the place. The Quiet Town brawl is also very good.
Anyone know of some great fights from the earlier books he wrote in the '50's and '60's?
Pre internet etc JT 's books were one of favourite catfight sources.
IIRC one of the very best western catfights was in " diamonds ..." I've forgotten the full title but the UK paperback cover actually featured the catfight - daring in those days.
The lesser known Bunduki series - a sort of sub Tarzan series set in Africa had a cool english woman " Dawn" who was Bunduki's partner/love interest. As Bunduki was Hunki ( sorry) she had several fights with local women - pretty good ones too
Buy a paperback book called Mistress Glory.... It takes place in England during the time of bare knuckle boxing. One lady gets her boyfriend to show her how to fight. She challenges a larger woman to a fight or a fight takes place and is well done, though short in length...
bill
If you can, find the Rockabye County series. Female deputy is involved in several fights and all have apartment house wrestling in them. Very good. All Edson's books were good reading as well as good fights.. The Wildcats and the Bad Bunch have several with Belle Boyd, Calamity and Belle starr in them.
I just finished "The Trouble Busters". There's a very good fight between Freddie Woods and Kate Gilgore. They are are rival saloonkeepers and Freddie is also the mayor (and later marries the hero Dusty Fog). The confrontation builds up over several chapters and culminates in a showdown behind locked doors in Freddie's saloon, with their saloon girls also getting in on the act in an overall brawl (no men in the saloon). Freddie and Kate keep getting separated so they go into Freddie's office, lock the door, pause for a drink, and then continue their lengthy battle.
I'm now reading "Slip Gun". This also has a very good fight between Wil Jeffreys and Lily Shivers. Wil is the mayor and Lily is the saloonkeeper. Their rivalry goes back to childhood and there is a very nice build up to the fight in previous chapters. They finally agree to fight topless in Lily's room where there is only a bed. The other furniture has been conveniently moved to the hallway for redecorating. Lily locks the door and they have a sexy, long battle. This fight is now one of my favorites.
I now have 45 of his westerns - and I've just ordered 3 more. I've read 25 so far. Only 3 do not have a catfight, but they still have strong female good and bad characters and they are good stories.
I'm not a fan of female ring wrestling, mud wrestling or boxing; I prefer the different scenario fights with good buildups. Lengthy, even battles between attractive, well-built women, starting out topless, or becoming topless or nude as the fight progresses. These are the type of fights I'm looking for in JT's books. The 2 books I described above are just that.
sinclairfan - Just curious, do you happen to recall if the Rockabye County fight you mentioned where the deputy shows up at a woman's house out of uniform so they can fight is from "The Sheriff of Rockabye County"? I'm planning to get some of the books in this series soon. Thanks.
Quote from: maine516 on September 20, 2013, 03:18:31 AM
I just finished "The Trouble Busters". There's a very good fight between Freddie Woods and Kate Gilgore. They are are rival saloonkeepers and Freddie is also the mayor (and later marries the hero Dusty Fog). The confrontation builds up over several chapters and culminates in a showdown behind locked doors in Freddie's saloon, with their saloon girls also getting in on the act in an overall brawl (no men in the saloon). Freddie and Kate keep getting separated so they go into Freddie's office, lock the door, pause for a drink, and then continue their lengthy battle.
I'm now reading "Slip Gun". This also has a very good fight between Wil Jeffreys and Lily Shivers. Wil is the mayor and Lily is the saloonkeeper. Their rivalry goes back to childhood and there is a very nice build up to the fight in previous chapters. They finally agree to fight topless in Lily's room where there is only a bed. The other furniture has been conveniently moved to the hallway for redecorating. Lily locks the door and they have a sexy, long battle. This fight is now one of my favorites.
I now have 45 of his westerns - and I've just ordered 3 more. I've read 25 so far. Only 3 do not have a catfight, but they still have strong female good and bad characters and they are good stories.
I'm not a fan of female ring wrestling, mud wrestling or boxing; I prefer the different scenario fights with good buildups. Lengthy, even battles between attractive, well-built women, starting out topless, or becoming topless or nude as the fight progresses. These are the type of fights I'm looking for in JT's books. The 2 books I described above are just that.
Do you remember which 3 books these are? I'm trying to compile a list of JT Edson fights and need to know which doesn't feature fights...
So far I think these are missing a fight:
* Cut One, they all bleed
* The Lawmen of Rockabye County
* Guns in the Night
* Go Back to Hell
I'm also looking for fatal fights in JT Edson, haven't read one yet but I think there's at least one or two... Anyone know anything?
These are the 4 JT books I have that do not contain a catfight:
Texas Kidnappers
Cut One, They All Bleed
Guns In The Night
A Town Called Yellowdog (a good story though I thought)
The only catfight I can recall at the moment with a fatal ending is in Terror Valley. Let's just say lions are involved.
Never read any of the books (I did read some Jake Longarm novels that had recurring catfight themes and of course Gor books). After reading this I did do a search and came across the Wikipedia entry which include a partial list of all the books that have Catfights in them. From the sound of things here, some of you may be able to update the Wiki page with what you know.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._T._Edson
Quote from: lumberjack66 on February 04, 2014, 07:27:18 AM
Never read any of the books (I did read some Jake Longarm novels that had recurring catfight themes and of course Gor books). After reading this I did do a search and came across the Wikipedia entry which include a partial list of all the books that have Catfights in them. From the sound of things here, some of you may be able to update the Wiki page with what you know.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._T._Edson
Do you remember any of those Longarm books that had catfights? I read a few but none of them had any.
CALAMITY JANE VS. ELLA WATSON
from The Cow Thieves
"Give it up," Calamity ordered. "Or do you want to wrassle it out?"
Seeing that she could not escape unless she got by Calamity, Ella prepared to take action. Quickly Ella hooked her left foot behind Calamity's right ankle, rammed her right boot against the red-head's knee, pulled with the left, hoved with the right, and brought Calamity down on her back. Then Ella reared up and flung herself on the Calamity.
From the moment Ella landed, Calamity knew, as she figured on their first meeing, that the saloonkeeper could take care of herself in any girl's kind of tangle.
Calamity's kepi went flying as two hands dug deep into her hair and damned near tore out a pile of red curls by her roots. Pure instict guided Calamity's response. Even as she screeched in pain, her own hands hooked strong fingers into Ella's black hair and Calamity braced herself, heaving up then rolling Ella from her. Swiftly Calamity twisted on to the top of Ella, trying to bang the black head against the ground. Not that Calamity stayed on top for long. Over and over the two girls rolled and thrashed. Neither showed any kind of skill, or gave a thought to anything more scientific than clawing hair, swinging wild slaps and punches or biting at first.
Nor did the situation improve for almost three minutes. Then, how it happened neither girld could say, they found themselves on the their feet. Ella stood behind Calamity, arms locked around the red-head and pinning Calamity's own arms to her sides. Just what advantage Ella aimed to take from the situation is hard to say. She retained her hold and crushed on the red-head, but could do little more. Gasping in fury more than pain, Calamity lashed backwards, her heels landing on Ella's shins hard enough to make the other girl yelp and loosen her hold a little. Then, Calamity clasped her hands together, forcing outwards agains Ella's grip with her elbows and sucking in a deep breath. Suddenly Calamity exhaled and felt the encircling arms relax their grip. Before Ella could tighten again, Calamity twisted slightly and rammed back with her wlbow, driving it into the other girl's stomach.
Giving a croaking gasp. Ella lost her hold and stumbled back. Jumping in to attack again, Calamity discovered that the other girl was far from beaten. Ella's left hand shot out, driving the fist full into Calamity's face, then the right whipped across to connect with the other girls jaw. Staggering, Calamity caught her balance just in time to meet Ella's rush.
For over ten minutes the girls put up a hell of a fight. They used fists, elbows, feet, knees, punching, slapping, kiking, pushing and shoving. Twice they rolled over Calamity's Colt without giving it a glance or thought. However, Calamity slowly gained the upper hand. Her normal working life offered greater advantages in the matter of staying fit and strong than did Ella's career in the saloon.
Gasping in exhaustion, her shirt torn open and minus one sleeve, Calamity landed a punch which sent the sobbing exhausted Ella sprawling to the ground. Calamity stumbled forward. Through the mists which roared around her, Calamity heard horses approaching. She came to a halt and started to look at the newcomers. That look nearly cost her the fight. Ella had come to her feet, swaying and barley able to stand. Yet she still swung a wild punch that ought to have flattened Calamity; only it missed the read-head by a good two inches. Once more Calamity's instincts came to her aid. Ignoring the two men who rode towards her, she turned and lashed out with all she had. In missing, Ella staggered forward and walked full into the punch Calamity threw. It clocked like two rocks cracking together as they fell down a cliff. Ella shot sideways, landing face down and lying still. Weakly Calamity followed the saloonkeeper up and dropped to her knees by the still shape.
"Ease off, Calam!" Danny yelled, leaping from his horse and running to where Calamity rolled the unsconscious Ella over.
"She's done!"
"Know something?" Calamity gasped. "I'm not much better myself."
Five minutes later Calamity recovered enough to tell Danny what had happened. Ella sat moaning on the ground to one side and Calamity looked at Danny with a wry grin as he said:
"I'd swear you let her jump you and get your gun just so you could fight."
"Shucks," grinned Calamity. "Can't a gal have any fun at all?"
Just fyi - The Cow Thieves was also released later as Running Irons.
Some VERY Few on AMAZON for kindle. Most are paperback on ebay. VERY PRICEY since the auther has passed on.
Rise from your grave!
Discovered this morning that a new JT Edson book is coming out next week on Amazon Kindle! And it's Book 5 of his Bunduki series! Sadly, Amazon is calling it "unfinished" (131 pages). Here's the description and the link.
https://www.amazon.com/Amazons-Zillikian-Unfinished-Bunduki-Adventure-ebook/dp/B0CKTPN9YT/ref=sr_1_1?crid=452IET8S6WAX&keywords=jt+edson+bunduki&qid=1698098219&sprefix=jt+edson+bunduki%2Caps%2C74&sr=8-1
At last! The final, unfinished action-adventure novel by bestselling author J. T. Edson can be enjoyed by his legions of fans worldwide!
On feeling the dismasted Amazon yacht overturning and themselves being thrown into the hurricane-lashed sea, it seemed to Beryl Snowhill, Charlotte 'Cha' Topper and Jill Jervis that nothing could save them from a watery grave.
Yet they had survived!
The mysterious aliens known as the Suppliers plucked them from what should have been certain death and transported them to the planet Zillikian. Having been delivered there, equipped and conditioned mentally to be able to use primitive weapons, they were left to their own devices.
It was fortunate for the Earth women that, in addition to the knowledge they had been given, they had already learned how to protect themselves. Being accepted by the Amazon nations, they became involved in the internal strife as dissidents sought to overthrow Queen Hippolyta. Before the affair was over, they needed all their strength, courage and ability with weapons and at barehanded fighting.
However, when peace was restored, they had won the right to consider themselves as being Amazons of Zillikian.
Thanks, CoffeeMug, for discovering this new release of The Amazons of Zillikian. I always hoped it would eventually be published even though it wasn't completed due to JTE's passing. I vaguely remember something about his family members having retained the unfinished manuscript and seeking to publish it at some future point, but I was certainly unsure if that would ever happen. Now, my problem is that I don't do Kindle and won't likely be buying one just for this book. I hope there will be a paperback version put out maybe by one of his former publishers. If you hear of anything, kindly post it here. I'll keep checking Amazon in the meantime.
CoffeeMug, it turns out I may have reason to purchase a Kindle reader. If and when I do, possibly in the next couple of months, I'll look to buy this Kindle version of The Amazons of Zillikian. If I do that, I'll post a review here unless you or someone else beats me to it. As you well know, JTE left us hanging at the conclusion of Fearless Master of The Jungle with the strong implication that Bunduki's beautiful partner Dawn would have an epic battle with the evil Priestess Charole in the next adventure. They came close to having one in Fearless Master, but they didn't. My hope was that Dawn and Charole would eventually have this epic face off in the final book, The Amazons of Zillikian. Although Charole's name is not mentioned in the overview for the new A of Z book, I'm hoping that somewhere in the 131 pages they will have this epic confrontation. By the way, this topic made me go back and read the version of a Dawn vs Charole fight you created in lieu of us not getting it from JTE. That was a fine fight description you wrote back in 2015 and it made me want even more to see a Dawn vs Charole long fight in The A of Z. Of course, it's likely that Dawn would fight Queen Hippolyta in the finale of A of Z, but since the book was unfinished that fight might not actually have been written.
Ha ha, thank you for the kind words, Maine!
As for the new release, I've pre-ordered it, and these things don't exactly take a long time to read, so I can come back and post something after I've read it.
Also, don't know how experienced you are with Amazon, but you don't need to buy any new device to read on Kindle. You can read the digital copy on your web browser on your laptop/tablet or on their free app on your phone. You do need to use the browser version of Amazon to buy any digital books, though. They got in a fight with the phone companies and disabled buying books through the Amazon phone app.
Happy to post more specifics if need be.
Thanks for the Amazon info CoffeMug. I am somewhat aware that there are other options for a digital reading of this book, but I do little to nothing with apps on my phone for one and since I now have another reason for buying a Kindle reader, I'm going that route. I'll look forward to reading what you post here about the A of Z. I'm guessing two things in advance; one is that Dawn will fight Charole in this final chapter and that an anticipated showdown between Dawn and Queen Hippolyta will not take place due to the book being unfinished. We'll see if I guessed correctly. Either way, I'm thinking there will be one or two female warrior women fights in this last book that could be excellent and very well deatiled.
My guess is that we get 'introductory' fights between one or two of the women from the description and lieutenant-level Amazons and build-up but no resolution on a fight between Hippolyta and whoever the leader of this group of British women is. I would LOVE to see Dawn and Charole go out at it, but I'd be very suprised if either is in it.
Yeah, I think you're probably right about either Dawn Charole being in this final book. Dawn is not one of the three leading ladies mentioned in the cover writeup and would most likely be listed there if she was in the book. It's wishful thinking on my part. It comes from their near miss battle in Fearless Master of The Jungle and the teaser at the very end that they would meet up again in the future. I look forward to your posting on what really happens.
Might look for J.T."s Ladies, I think there are 2.
Quote from: colt 45 on October 27, 2023, 09:16:08 PM
Might look for J.T."s Ladies, I think there are 2.
Kindle now has all 3: Ladies, More Ladies, and Ride Again.
Read it this morning.
The bad:
--It's quite short. You could read the whole in half an hour, probably.
--The first 2/3s of it is introduction, buildup, etc. written in the typical Edson style: he uses 30 words when 5 would have been enough and everything is handled backwards, so that the end of the action is given first and then he explains how it started. The usual bad writing stuff.
--You don't see Dawn, Charole, Queen Hera, or the actual Amazon civilization. Everything takes place on a beach and then in some random countryside.
--I don't think any of these characters among his best. I guess this is purely subjective, but my honest reaction is that none of them 'do it' for me the way my favorite Edson ladies do.
--The editors found no outlines or anything for the rest of the plot, so the book is just the 9 chapters he wrote, his description of the cover image, and a few back-cover blurbs he wrote.
The good:
--The last 1/3 has two fights, basically right in a row. The first one, the fight itself isn't spectacular, but the buildup to it is the best he ever did, imo. And then the second, the buildup is just okay but the fight itself is quite good.
--This book had a ton of potential for fights (this is related to my next comment).
--It really seems like his fetish is in full control at this point. There is a specific fight-related thing he does that's just hilarious, in a "we're just being very open about our real interest here" way. I would really prefer that readers discover it for themselves, but I can post in behind a spoiler if people want.
--Man, the possibilities here are so rich, I halfway want to write up the rest of it. It's pretty obvious where he wanted the story to go.
Thanks, Coffemug, for reading the book so quickly and for providing a concise and informative summary. It may be a while before I get around to reading the Kindle version. I would be more inclined to reading it sooner if Dawn and Charole were in the story, and they had their epic confrontation. I guess we'll never know why he alluded to this in the previous book but didn't follow through with it in this final chapter of the series. Hard to say, especially since the book was unfinished.
One of the things I liked about the Bunduki series was that even when there wasn't a female fight, there were plenty of beautiful female warrior women around and a lot of potential for some great fights. Your comment about him being in full control of his fetish at this point is interesting. He hid his fetish in his early westerns by saying he was just developing strong female characters. By the time he got to his modern day (1970's) Rockabye County series, his fetish was far more open. It seemed most of the stories in that series somehow always worked in female apartment wrestling and he even referenced catfight magazines and companies from that era at least in a general sense. There was a definite pattern of him becoming much more direct and open about his fondness for catfights.
Quote from: sinclairfan on November 05, 2023, 06:34:57 PM
In the Western series, it felt like Calamity Jane and Belle Boyd were building to an epic showdown, which never happened.
Belle Boyd, the Confederate/New Orleans spy, had dispensed with her main rival, a sexy Union spy, in an epic arranged/forced topless fight after they were both captured in Mexico.
Calamity's only draw/loss was to Madame Bulldog, who turned out later to be her own mother.
The books brought Boyd and Jane together, but Edson could never bring himself to get them to fight.
Here's a link to a nice image of how that fight would look:
https://www.deviantart.com/pierrotlunaireart/art/Calamity-Jane-vs-Belle-Starr-410995814
Here's a link to a nice image of how that fight would look:
https://www.deviantart.com/pierrotlunaireart/art/Calamity-Jane-vs-Belle-Starr-410995814
[/quote]
Here's the image: