Riders of Judgment
Encyclopedia
Riders of Judgment is the fifth book chronologically in Frederick Manfred
's Buckskin Man Tales, which trace themes through five novels set in the 19th Century Great Plains. The story fictionalizes Wyoming's Johnson County War, based on Manfred's original research (which relied heavily on Johnson County Historian Thelma Condit). Keeping in mind that his interests are fictional, his analysis of events is close to the story as recounted in Helena Huntington Smith's The War on Powder River, which was published about ten years after Manfred's novel.
The novel was the source for the made-for-television film The Johnson County War, starring Tom Berenger. The title change was unfortunate, because of the implication that the film was historical. Manfred made no such claims; his characters and the story are by no means consistent with the particular details of the historical incident. For example, Manfred uses Nate Champion, Jack Flagg, and John Tisdale as the models for his Hammett brothers, Cain, Harry, and Dale, and turns Frank Canton into a strange family nemesis called variously Hunt Lawton and Link Keeler. Manfred firmly dissociates himself from any such implication (unlike the film Heaven's Gate
, in which historical names are used to populate a radically fictionalized incident), going so far as to change even the names of the county and the nearby towns.
Frederick Manfred
Frederick Feikema Manfred was a noted Western author.Manfred was born in Doon, Iowa. He was baptized Frederick Feikes Feikema, VII, and he used the name Feike Feikema when he published his first books...
's Buckskin Man Tales, which trace themes through five novels set in the 19th Century Great Plains. The story fictionalizes Wyoming's Johnson County War, based on Manfred's original research (which relied heavily on Johnson County Historian Thelma Condit). Keeping in mind that his interests are fictional, his analysis of events is close to the story as recounted in Helena Huntington Smith's The War on Powder River, which was published about ten years after Manfred's novel.
The novel was the source for the made-for-television film The Johnson County War, starring Tom Berenger. The title change was unfortunate, because of the implication that the film was historical. Manfred made no such claims; his characters and the story are by no means consistent with the particular details of the historical incident. For example, Manfred uses Nate Champion, Jack Flagg, and John Tisdale as the models for his Hammett brothers, Cain, Harry, and Dale, and turns Frank Canton into a strange family nemesis called variously Hunt Lawton and Link Keeler. Manfred firmly dissociates himself from any such implication (unlike the film Heaven's Gate
Heaven's Gate
Heaven's Gate may refer to:* Heaven's Gate , a religious group mostly known for a mass suicide in 1997* Heaven's Gate , a 1980 American movie* Heavens Gate , a German heavy metal band...
, in which historical names are used to populate a radically fictionalized incident), going so far as to change even the names of the county and the nearby towns.