Not so easy

Easy Street (2012), one of Richard S. Wheeler's last novels, did not have a major publisher. As no publisher at all is listed on the book, it must have been self-published. To be sure, it is not among his best westerns, yet still it proves entertaining while, like his others, giving readers a glimpse at the real Wild West as opposed to the popular fantasy.

The story begins, and ends, in the East, where Jay Tecumseh Warren, son of a wealthy businessman, has just graduated from Harvard expecting to live comfortably off his father's money for the rest of his life. Instead when he gets home he finds $500, a train ticket to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and a letter from his father telling him to make his own way in the world.

In Cheyenne — although with $500 he could have gone anywhere — Jay, having a Harvard degree, expects to start at the top. The only available jobs, however, are those requiring hard physical labor, which Jay decides is beneath him. He changes his mind, somewhat, when his money runs out. He takes a job with a shipping company hauling supplies by oxen for gold miners in Deadwood. He abandons that job as soon as he can, joining a gang of men planning to jump the claims of miners.

One get-rich scheme after another, legal or not, fails to put Jay on Easy Street, until in the final chapters he finally learns the lesson his father had been trying to teach him — that hard work leads to success. Nothing comes easy.

It may all be a bit simplistic, yet even in his old age Wheeler could write an engaging novel. Easy Street at least deserved a publisher.