The Scalphunters + Lock Tenders House Tickets

Title: The Scalphunters
Genre: Western Fiction
Author: Ed Friend a.k.a. Richard Wormser (1908-1977)
Illustrator: Uncredited
Publisher: Fawcett Publications, Inc., Greenwich, Connecticut
Series: “A Fawcett Gold Medal Book”
Year: 1968
Pages: 128
Format: Paperback, Mass-Market
Provenance: Unknown
Opening Sentence: “Winter is long in the Sangre de Cristos; long and cold, and lonely.”
Random Passage: “Down in the creek bottom, making his torturous way through the thick growth of young willow and arrowweed and tules, Joe Bass was denied the dubious pleasure of seeing Kate in her nightgown, but he could hear her clearly—an even more doubtful joy.”
Goodreads Review: “What a surprise, second very good western in a row by two different authors. This one was made into a movie with Burt Lancaster and I felt a bit like I was reading a screen play. Easy to read, interesting plots and characters. I checked and can only find one other work by this author. What a shame.” — John, October 14, 2015.
Notes: Novelization of a Sidney Pollack-directed film starring Burt Lancaster and Ossie Davis as, respectively, an ornery fur trapper and an erudite ex-slave who becomes a bartering object for a savage tribe of Natives. A brisk, surprisingly compelling read from Wormser, who specialized in pulp fiction and entertainment tie-in fiction (as with The Scalphunters, he sometimes wrote under the pseudonym of Ed Friend). As a bonus, we’re including two adult tickets for the Lock Tender’s House in High Falls, New York.