THE JESSE JAMES SCRAPBOOK

By George Jansen. Published by Milliard Harris Publishers, 2003. Notes on sources. 258pp. Paperback. $16.95

This is a novel, and unlike many other recent novels a much greater proportion of the 'material' has been invented by the author; although in his Notes on sources he claims to have tried to reinvent 'the language' of the times. No doubt we have all seen a 'western' film, supposedly based on fact, where at least much of the true story has been ignored to create a 'better film'. This is exactly the equivalent in a book form and this reviewer must confess from the very beginning that he does not like it for the reason given above. Also, while Settle's Jesse James Was His Name is cited as one of the sources, along with two books by Marley Brant, it is somewhat disconcerting to read that Carl Breihan, Homer Croy, Robertus Love, Frank Triplett and Jesse's son "provided much of the inspiration for the approach used here and for many of the incidents depicted."

The book is basically a series of "clippings, pictures and other memorabilia about Jesse James" in the collection of a young man, Tom Gardner. The first item, for example, is a piece by one Billy Drury, a farmer of Clay County, Missouri (the home of the James family). Farmer Drury's recollection is dated spring 1850 - there was, of course, a Drury Woodson James in the James family - and deals in part with the early days of the James family. In this very first piece, however, sloppy research or a reliance on poor sources causes an error of fact: after Robert James's (the father of the James boys) premature death in California, the widow is said to have married Dr. Reuben Samuel, but, like Jesse junior, no mention is made of a short-lived marriage between Samuel and the death of Robert.

There then follows two completely 'fictional chapters,' one from a schoolteacher and the other from a caretaker at a church school. The fourth item is again from Farmer Drury and a meeting with a teenage Cole Younger in the early stages of the Civil war. In this we find mention of Cole disguising himself as a female apple seller and of his altercation with "some captain of the militia." Strangely, Cole doesn't say that this unnamed captain (actually Irvin Walley) robbed and killed his father. The later stages of the Civil War are dealt with by an inventive cocktail of half-truths ad downright fiction (of no real surprise in a novel): a number of letters from a Confederate cavalryman (who met Frank James) to his brother; an account of a 'minor' war-time robbery by Frank; the torturing of Dr. Samuel and Jesse by Union troops; an account of the Lawrence raid; a meeting between a young girl and Jesse; Belle Starr and Cole Younger; an attack on Concord, Missouri by guerrillas; a Quantrill reunion; and Jesse's wounds. It is in this section that more facts are fictionalised: the doctor who treated Jesse's wounds appears under a different name; and, more importantly, John Newman Edwards, a military aide during the war and 'inventor' of the legend of Jesse James, is also introduced without his proper name.

Farmer Drury returns as the interlocutor for the gang's early activities, immediately after the end of the war, and sloppy research also returns: the date of the Liberty bank robbery is given as St. Valentine's Day. And so the novel builds up, with further errors: "Allen" Pinkerton rather than Allan.

As a novel there is an interesting mix of media used to tell the story but this reviewer would have preferred a book about a fictional gang that never existed; the misuse of the facts and the constant errors about the James gang get in the way of what would otherwise have been a good read.