THE GREAT RAILROAD WAR

Garden City: Doubleday, 1981. Hardcover. About Very Good/Good Plus. This is a late novel from the award-winning Western genre writer, Lutz. It is the story of a war between the rich and powerful Rock Island Railroad and the people of Enid, OK, who refused to give up their independence and become a company town. It features Jason Keeler, a lawyer, who suddenly finds himself caught in the middle of a conflict turning violent. First edition, first printing. About 5 3/4 x 8 3/8 inches, 183 pages bound in beige paper-covered boards with orange lettering on the spine. The dustjacket's front panel shows a graphic of a 19th century steam locomovtive facing a crowd of angry citizens. Back panel contains a seven paragraph excerpt from the novel. Boards and spine show only lightly bumped spine ends; no bumped corners, no noticeable edgewear. Binding is firm, no cracked hinges. Text is complete, clean and unmarked. Text edges show light foxing with remainder spray on bottom edge. A few pages have tiny dogeared coners. Dustjacket shows wear along edges and corners with minor chipping at spine ends and pair of one-inch tears at top edge of back panel. Graphics and lettering are complete and show only minor wear and damage. Not price-clipped. A good example of the work of an author who started writing for the pulp fiction western magazines before switching to novels in the mid-1950s and published more than 60 novels before his death in 1982.