Popular book about Las Vegas, New Mexico to become an audio book

WILDEST OF THE WILD WEST: True Tales of a Frontier Town on the Santa Fe Trail was first published in 1988 by Clear Light Publishers of Santa Fe. Now it will be an audio book!

Written by the late Albuquerque journalist and historian Howard Bryan, the story of the incredibly violent and lawless history of Las Vegas, New Mexico during its railroad boom years has sold tens of thousands of copies and continues to be a Southwest best seller, one of the most successful regionally published books ever.

Noemi de Bodisco, owner of Op Cit Books in Santa Fe and Taos and Tome on the Range in Las Vegas, says the book has always been a regional best seller in all three of her stores, and agrees that its vivid content should make it a perfect audio book. “We buy this book by the carton,” she says, “Not in ones or twos.”

Audio book producer Jim Terr, a native of Las Vegas, NM, says he was attracted to the book as an audio project for exactly that reason. “The stories are so vivid, so engaging – many nearly unbelievable – that I think this will make the perfect audio book for driving, and hopefully for drawing young adults into an awareness of history.”

The audio version, voiced by Terr, an actor and documentary producer, will be available on December 12, 2019 via www.HookIntoHistory.com , as well as on CD in bookstores. Book signings are scheduled in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Taos, and Las Vegas (see website).

In his forward to the book, historian Max Evans says, “The hanging windmill on the (Las Vegas) Old Town Plaza was used so often and so publicly that its services to the community had to be voided as too great a temptation. Little boys all over town were hanging their dogs in imitation.”

Doc Holliday, Billy the Kid, Bat Masterson, Jesse James, and other famous and infamous outlaws all spent time in Las Vegas. A famous poster from 1882 warned “Thieves, Thugs, Fakirs and Bunko-Steerers” to leave town by “ten o’clock this night or you will be invited to attend a grand neck-tie party, the expense of which will be borne by 100 substantial citizens.”

Harmon Houghton of Clear Light Publishers, who licensed the book to Terr for audio production and distribution, says: “This was one of the first books we published, and thirty years later holds the same intrigue and popularity as ever. As Howard Bryan (the author) told me, Las Vegas, NM made Dodge City look like a church meeting ground. I look forward to the audio version as re-told by master story teller Jim Terr.”  

Terr is also the producer of the mockumentary, "The Brill Building Movie," available as a pay-on-demand feature on Vimeo.com and free on YouTube.com ( www.BrillBuildingMovie.com )

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Contact: Jim Terr 505-426-6612 / bluecanyon2 -AT - juno.com

Date: December 5, 2019

Comments for Audio Version of Wildest of the Wild West by Howard Bryan

Harmon Houghton, Original book publisher

Wildest of the Wild West by Howard Bryan was first books published by Clear Light Publishing in 1988 and thirty years later hold the same intrigue of tales of the “Men of Opportunity” that retired in the town of Las Vegas NM after a life of crime in the western frontier .

As Howard Bryan told me it made Dodge City look like a church meeting ground.

Sit back and enjoy the audio version as re-told by master story teller Jim Terr

Imagine a town so riddled with bullet holes and so full of neck‑stretched hemp as to make other Wild West towns look like the headquarters of a Billy Graham crusade. Las Vegas, New Mexico, situated on the historic Santa Fe Trail, played host to more than its share of gunfighters, bandits and Indian warriors during its heyday. As an end‑of‑track town on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe rail line, like many railroad terminus points, it became the natural location for more gun battles, barroom brawls and hangings than any other town on the Western frontier.

Wildest of the Wild West is not a small town history, but rather a collection of Western tales relating the many dramatic and melodramatic events centered around Las Vegas, New Mexico, which rocked the West in the days of Billy the Kid. The Kid and Pat Garrett are only two of the colorful array of characters Howard Bryan presents in Wildest of the Wild West. All these true tales are drawn in large part from early newspaper reports, the better to capture the special style and flavor of the Old West.

The years between 1835 and 1915 were indeed tempestuous. Tales appearing in the book include the first hanging of a woman on the Western frontier; how the daughter of an Apache chief chose death over dishonor; midnight lynchings from the "hanging windmill which occurred to frequently that the boys of Las Vegas were hanging their dogs in imitation, and the filming of some of the earliest Western movies.

Enjoy this captivating audio story of the Wild west as much as thousands of people have read its pages

Thank you Jim Terr for producing and Audio version

Harmon Houghton, Publisher
Clear Light Books