Comments on: Oakley Hall (1920-2008)

Oakley Hall (1920-2008)

Lentrohamsanin — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:30:54 -0800

Novelist Oakley Hall, most famous for the western Warlock, has died at the age of 87. Here's a review of Warlock by Thomas Pynchon, a huge fan of the book.

By: dersins

dersins — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:43:28 -0800

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:46:28 -0800

Thank you for posting this. There was a cult literature thread a while back and I posted Warlock as being an example of a true cult novel. He was one of the authors who demonstrated that a really great Western could also be really great literature. It's too bad that the film adaptation of Warlock hasn't been rediscovered; it came out at the time of HUAC and was scripted by a blacklisted writer (and the film's themes contain an inherent criticism of witch hunts), and so it suffered.

By: RogerB

RogerB — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:54:34 -0800

Just read Warlock in the nice new NYRB edition, and I've been looking forward to checking out Hall's Ambrose Bierce series sometime soon. Warlock is a nice piece of work, sitting neatly on the fence between Serious Literature and pulp and for the most part sucessful as both. It seems like Hall deserves some of the attention that, for instance, Cormac McCarthy gets.

By: geoff.

geoff. — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:58:38 -0800

I bet Thomas Pynchon could craft one sweet front page post.

By: johannahdeschanel

johannahdeschanel — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:30:03 -0800

Is there a film adaptation of Blood Meridian?

By: newmoistness

newmoistness — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:30:42 -0800

I bet Thomas Pynchon could craft one sweet front page post. A screaming comes across MeFi...

By: mattbucher

mattbucher — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:47:45 -0800

Is there a film adaptation of Blood Meridian? Coming soon from Ridley Scott I also liked his pulp novels! Warlock is one hell of a book. .

By: TheophileEscargot

TheophileEscargot — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:19:14 -0800

I read Warlock recently after an Ask MeFi recommended it. Good book. The extract quoted in the obit is a bit misleading since it's written from multiple points of view and that's just one of them. RIP.

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:26:24 -0800

The 1959 film adaptation featured an all-star cast that included Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn and DeForest Kelly.