The Flesh & Blood of George G. Gilman

Jamie Hedges counted six riders and there should have been only one.

In 1972, with that opening sentence from Edge: THE LONER, New English Library (NEL) unleashed into the literary world the works of George G. Gilman.

Born from the spaghetti westerns that littered the cinema in the late sixties, the Gilman canon dismissed the heroic cowpoke fables that inhabited other genre novels and relocated them into Man With No Name territory. Here, amidst the wafting gun smoke and vile bloodshed which was the calling card for such landmark directors as Sergio (Il Grande Silenzio) Corbucci, the name George G. Gilman would become synonymous with essential -- if not addictive -- reading for passionate Western fans.

These fans, which are proudly proclaimed either Gilmanites or Gilmaniacs in their respective circles, have now carried the George G. Gilman torch throughout three decades. Their unbridled fervor has accompanied the novels with the appearance of a fanzine and website, not to mention the occasional sighting of an Edge or Steele t-shirt; even though the Gilman adventures ceased to arrive at bookstores in 1989.

Now, thirteen years later, George G. Gilman is back in the saddle and again riding the plains. His arduous journey through publishing gunfights now distant trail dust memories as he once more delivers the goods for worldwide fans.
Fans who have all anxiously awaited the return of George G. Gilman or, as he’s privately known:

TERRY HARKNETT
Dismissing an early interest in motor mechanics when gifted with a portable typewriter at the age of fifteen, Terry Harknett set out to tackle the world of the written word.

He began a job as a copy boy, spending the evenings not only sorting through the infinite stacks of newspapers and magazines which were afforded him, but walking the balmy Los Angeles streets alongside Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe.

It was here, fueled by the imaginative scenarios inside the paperbacks, that Terry’s fingers began to dance atop the typewriter keys.

A duo of short stories, which were both romance fiction and a far cry from the two-fisted tales he would later create, were bought and published by a South African publication. The pay was low for such effort, but the brilliant magnificence of seeing his name in print only prompted Terry to continue in his quest to become a full-time writer.

The following years would continue to see the publication of his short stories while Terry spent time in the RAF (Royal Air Force), creating his own answer to Philip Marlowe with the creation of Steve Wayne. Nights were spent hammering out the adventures of what Terry would describe as his "sub-sub-sub standard Raymond Chandler" offerings as he next found himself in the employment of the Twentieth Century Fox offices in London, then as a reporter/feature writer for National Newsagent.

As he wrote for the newspaper, and watched as sales of his mystery novels suffered, Terry was approached by Peter Haining of NEL. He was offered the chance at penning the novelizaton for the film A Town Called Bastard, which would lead into the publication of three more movie adaptations -- all of which were Westerns.

And it was here, with the obvious fact that no other writer on the market was composing tales that mirrored the bloody silver screen images of the spaghetti western, that it was proposed Terry Harknett blaze a new trail.

THE VIOLENT PEACE
Working under the pseudonym of George G. Gilman -- which was a comical play on the children’s term for a horse, or gee gee -- Terry Harknett would, for the next seventeen years, deliver a countless number of pages chronicling the adventures of his anti-heroes; while at the same time paving a new road for other authors to follow in his wake.

The Edge series, which was jointly created with NEL editor Laurence James, was a fresh literary idea and an immediate success. The action on the pages moved at a quick pace, while the vivid descriptions of brutality (which would later spur U.S. publisher Pinnacle to brand them The Most Violent Westerns In Print!) was shocking. However, in an attempt to lessen the impact of the explicit violence -- which Terry readily admits he never enjoyed writing in the books -- he injected dark sarcasm to lighten the situation. The gallows humor, which is prevalent throughout each of the Gilman titles, remains a fan favorite to this day.

Such was the success of this series that NEL immediately announced another from the George G. Gilman pen. Born from a failed screenplay that Terry had written, Adam Steele made his debut in 1974 and would ride alongside Edge -- both on the bookshelf and in three adventures they would simultaneously share -- until their demise in 1989. A third series entitled The Undertaker, which would feature the humorless mortician named Barnaby Gold, surfaced in 1981. Unfortunately, it was absent of the success shouldered by Terry’s earlier Gilman series and vanished after only six titles.

Terry Harknett, however, was not limited to his work as George G. Gilman.
A member of the infamous Piccadilly Cowboys, who circled their wagons around the George G. Gilman success, Terry would also create the Jubal Cade and Apache series. Sharing work on these with Laurence James, which had left his editorial position at NEL to become a full-time writer, along with the likes of Angus Wells and John Harvey (the latter who later gained fame as the author of the Charlie Resnick series of police procedurals), this talent pool became prolific throughout the 1970s and early 1980s at producing a wealth of entertaining Western fiction.

Though none of the titles would reach the heights at which a George G. Gilman paperback could obtain, each writer would have his own personal success with the likes of such series as Herne the Hunter, Crow, Gunslinger and Breed; all of which were cast from the Gilman model.

Eventually, as the sales of Western fiction began to slowly diminish in the early 1980s, the remainder of the Piccadilly Cowboys watched as their series were unsparingly cancelled. Terry continued to pen George G. Gilman yarns, managing to survive a failed motion picture adaptation of Edge and the bankruptcy of Pinnacle, until he realized that it had come time to call it a day.
Unfortunately, in 1989, NEL released their final George G. Gilman titles. Terry cited both the lack of sales and his own "diminishing brain cells" as the reason he allowed the sun to set on his beloved characters, giving them free reign to ride away on their own without the fear of cancellation stalking their every move like a well-trained bounty hunter.

But as the years passed and the name George G. Gilman, which at one time had trailed only the likes of Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey as the top-selling Western authors, slowly faded from respective circles; Gilmaniacs worldwide would not allow the flame to be extinguished.

And it was then, with the passion renewed, that Terry Harknett reloaded his Frontier Colt.

THE SUNSET RIDE
In July 2001, twelve years since either Edge or Adam Steele had fired a shot, Terry Harknett finally found his home in cyberspace on the worldwide web. Built upon the same passionate foundation that had formed the original fan club twenty years before, the George G. Gilman Appreciation Society continues to entertain fans old and new on a daily basis.

It was here that fans learned Terry had never truly discarded his George G. Gilman guise, as he had written an Edge mini-series in the years between the final published books and the birth of the website. Originally written for his own amusement, if only to see how his most famous creation would handle himself as an "older, less violent man," Terry had never intended for the work to be seen by the fans.

But on July 1, 2002, Gilmaniacs found themselves with something other to celebrate than just the first anniversary of their website. As it was on this day that the opening chapters to The Quiet Gun, the first book in the new mini-series, were finally released.

And now, as George G. Gilman continues to ride toward his bloody sunset, the success and gratitude that both author and fans share reminds me of a Terry Harknett quote; one which makes me content with agreement whenever I remember why I started the website:

"It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Yes Terry, it most certainly was.
-submitted by Trever Palmer

LINKS:
The George G. Gilman Appreciation Society

Posted by ds at November 20, 2002 05:00 PM

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