About
Jeff Arnold’s West, the blog of Western fans for other Western fans, was started in 2010 and since then has reviewed close to 1500 Western movies and TV shows as well as many books – factual and fictional.
Articles on the historical and mythic West have also been posted, especially on famous Westerners in fact and fiction, the likes of Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and many more, what is really known about them and how they have been portrayed on the page and on the screen.
There are also essays on such Western essentials as stagecoaches, saloons, gunfights, hats, horses, and more.
A community of readers has grown up, friends of the blog, who often leave very welcome comments and share knowledge and enthusiasm. Sadly, when the blog changed host many of these comments didn’t get transferred and are lost, but readers are encouraged to leave more!
Jeff:
The site’s founder and namesake, Jeff Arnold, pictured with his sidekick Matt Dillon in Monument Valley, was born in the year Red River and Fort Apache were released, grew up with Westerns, big-screen and small, and had close to three-quarters of a century of immersion in movies, books and travels to his ‘credit’.
He was also a writer, and his Western novel, Stay and Die, was published on November 10, 2023 by Austin Macauley. The book mixes real-life and fictional characters of the old West in a tale set in the railroad boomtown of Las Vegas, NMT, in 1879. Buy it from amazon!
After a short and aggressive illness, Jeff passed away in June 2024.
Now:
Yet, the community of Jeff Arnold’s West has continued forward. In Jeff’s last post, he asked if anyone would want to take over the blog. Longtime readers RR and Bud responded. Despite the inconvenience of an intervening ocean, Bud and RR are the site’s co-hosts and collaborate on new content.
Please contact us at jawestrideson@gmail.com. Contributions are welcome!