Oliver Strange – Sudden Makes War (1942)

Series Preface

James Green, aka Sudden, the hero of the series, is a fictional character created by an English author Oliver Strange in the early 1930’s, set in the American Wild West era.  Oliver Strange died in 1952, and the series was revived by Frederick H. Christian in the 1960s which I do not think are a patch on Oliver Strange’s Sudden books.

Jim Green is a boy raised by an Indian horse trader, bought by an old man called Bill Evesham.  Bill Evesham treats his as his son and sends the boy back East for educating.  Whilst the boy is away, his foster father is swindled by two men.  Upon the boys’ return, Bill Evesham dies and on the death bed, his foster father says, “Peterson stole my little girl and Webb cheated me of my money and farm,” So the boy promises the old man that they will both get their just deserts.

Sudden, the deadliest gunfighter of them all, smashes through 15 glorious adventures, taming wild towns, punishing crooked town Marshals, fighting range wars and managing near impossible cattle drives.  All the Sudden books are standalone stories, superbly written and thoroughly enjoyable.

The books do contain politically incorrect references to non-white Americans but I believe it is more because of the setting of the time period being written about than any racial prejudice. Sudden, of course, judges each man according to his deeds and does not show any prejudice. Regardless, the books are a treat not to be missed by any worthwhile aficionado of western and/or adventure novels.  The series is centred around a gunfighter in the American Wild West, who is in search for the two men who cheated his foster father.  Jim, the young man, promises his dying foster father that he will find the two and take revenge.  He gives the name James Green to himself.  In the first book in the series (Sudden – Outlawed) Jim is accused of a robbery which he did not commit and subsequently, becomes an ‘wanted’.

The series details the adventures of a gunfighter who earns the nickname ‘Sudden’ because of his lightning speed with a gun.  Sudden is also characterised as an intelligent man who is respectful of the law, unwilling to use a gun unless absolutely necessary, humanitarian, brave, and strong.

Oliver Strange created his own American language substituting words such as “yu” for “you”; “yore” for “your” and “pore” for “poor” as examples.  We have kept to them as faithfully as we can, along with using English spellings over American.

In his blog, Gary Dobbs says: “… the Sudden books may prove problematic for modern readers, but the language used is a product of the times and if there is any message to Sudden, it is one of anti-racism.  The character is respectful to Indians; indeed he was brought up by Indians.  In fact, the books portray racism on the part of any character as bad and undesirable.  Ignore the politically correct crowd, because the Sudden books, both the original series by Oliver Strange and Fred Nolan’s latter-day adventures, written as by Frederick H. Christian are excellent westerns and adventure stories.”

Sudden’s horse is named ‘Nigger’ as it is black.  In the era this series was written, Nigger was an acceptable term.   In the Sudden books, this word was definitely not used in a derogatory fashion.  However, it does show us, how, rightfully, times have changed as such derogatory and racist terms are rightfully now not allowed.

Range Robbers was the first book published however, when Oliver Strange continued the series, he went back and forth with Sudden’s history and therefore the publication order is not the same as the chronological order.

The chronological order of the Oliver Strange books, as far as we can work out, is below:

1. Sudden—Outlawed
2. Sudden
3. Sudden—Gold Seeker
4. Sudden Rides Again
5. Sudden Makes War
6. Sudden Takes the Trail
7. Sudden Plays a Hand
8. The Marshal of Lawless
9. The Range Robbers
10. The Law o’ the Lariat