The story of Sam Bass, both outlaw and romantic figure, has 
become a familiar part of Texas folklore and is well documented in 
nonfiction. But in this novel, Bryan Woolley creates a compelling 
story by giving the antihero fictional life. Woolley brings Bass alive 
through six alternating voices—Maude, the whore who was Bass's 
lover; Mary Matson, the African American who took him in and 
tended him as he lay dying; Dad Egan, the lawman who was once 
a father-figure to young Sam Bass but feels compelled to capture 
the outlaw; Frank Johnson, who rode with Bass but left the outlaw 
life to reappear as a small-town doctor; and Jim Murphy, the 
well-meaning saloonkeeper who makes a bargain with the law and 
brings down Sam Bass.

    In shaping the Bass story, Woolley explores the themes of 
youth and age, impulse and wisdom. An outlaw, for many of us,
is not a villain or a criminal but someone who, by choice or 
circumstance, finds himself at odds with society. We see the 
outlaw life as one of carefree freedom without responsibilities and 
full of infinite possibilities. Frank Jackson says it best as he 
recalls riding with Sam Bass: "I felt like an outlaw but not like a 
criminal, and the beauty of the day and its freedom filled me."
 
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BRYAN WOOLLEY is a senior writer on the staff of the The Dallas 
Morning News. He has won numerous awards for his journalism and 
has published several collections of his work. He is a past president 
of the Texas Institute of Letters and is a member of the Texas Folklore 
Society and the Texas State Historical Association. He and his wife, 
poet Isabel Nathaniel, make their home in Dallas.


Number Thirty-six: Texas Tradition Series