Simple Truths for Our Awful Times

 August 1, 2024

   Drove into the Beast yesterday to check in with the Boys at Cattletrack. Brent Bond showed me the cover of our next limited edition booklet:

   Goes on press next week—and by the way, it's a hand press! Very limited, numbered edition. One hundred bucks each is the price. Not for the feint of heart. Going to be sweet.

Old Hoist Ramsey Mine

   By Maynard Dixon, Ramsey Mine, Ramsey, Nevada, 1927. From the Nevada Museum of Art. I was with Ed Mell once when we were looking at Dixon's work and Edmundo sighed and said, "I'll never be that good." It was a bold and humbling admission and a testament to just how good Maynard was.

Simple Truths for Our Awful Times

   How has True West magazine prevailed in the history and magazine business when so many have failed and flat out disappeared? I could probably cite you a hundred reasons, starting with having the right people on your team, but here are the big ones, the most important ones that not only helped us survive, they might help you in these awful times.

When in doubt, quote our brilliant forefathers!

   For starters, we have an epidemic failure in history appreciation. Our schools are afraid to teach history and when they do it's mostly names and dates. The real way to get kids interested in history is to tell better stories. And that has been our goal at True West magazine. In the past 25 years of doing this, we have established some guidelines that help us succeed. Most of them are profoundly simple, but a good many of them we earned the hard way, with blood, sweat and tears. Oh, and lost dollars. Many, many lost dollars.

• First off, we print the truth, warts and all, and when we make this our goal, it leads us directly to the next truth:

• We seek authenticity on every page. In our business authenticity is King. How do you find authenticity? By walking where they walked and standing where they stood. You must travel to historic sites. You will feel it when you get there. I highly recommend this for anyone who is writing or illustrating or merely enjoying history. And, then the second part of the task is to be true to what you felt when you stood there. Be true to that emotion. Trust me, this will carry you far.

• "Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little." —Tom Stoppard

   Or, put another way:

 "Choosing the right word is the difference between lightning and lightning bug."

—Mark Twain

   More ridiculously simple truths tomorrow.