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by David M. Sullivan and James Worsham.
Hardback (6.3×9.2 inches). 489 pages. 2025.
This biography of Samuel Walker, known primarily for the Colt Walker pistol, should be retitled The Letters of Sam Walker. There’s minimal writing and maximum retyping. If you thought my complaints about books increasingly containing too many excerpts and too little analysis were too strident, then you should have heard me trying to read this tome of letters, reports, and other period writings. After about 50 to 60 pages, I set it aside.
Harsh? Possibly, so I later picked it up and skimmed though half of it. It soon was clear to me that the authors did little but put such in chronological order. The authors certainly did their research, but to me, bundling a bunch of correspondence and reports together does not a biography make. A reference guide, maybe.
I guess I didn’t find the letters that interesting. That said, collecting such period writings in one place offers a benefit if you are interested in early to mid-19th century letters.
— Reviewed by Russ Lockwood
