Hoppy Birthday!

February 3 was the birthday of Hopalong Cassidy creator, Clarence Mulford. My pal, Rodney Rhodus, contributes today's info:

Jay Gatsby had read him, we assume, since his father shows up at the funeral with an old copy of Hopalong Cassidy in which Jay had written his regimen for self-improvement.

It's been 30 years or more since I last read The Great Gatsby, and I really can't recall that bit of trivia. But I've heard Gatsby described as a reverse western: instead of the character heading west to recreate his identity, Jay traveled east to be a new person from the one he had been in the west.

It just so happens that I read The Coming of Cassidy not long ago. A lot of fun, and the hard-boiled and bloodthirsty qualities of Mulford's cowboys are a bit disguised by his oblique descriptions and colorful language, and the ways he characterizes their playfulness.

Worth reading.