<p>
J.P.S. Brown is a badass writer in the tradition of Hemingway and Henry Miller–talented, adventurous, and aggressively masculine. His novels evoke Cormac McCarthy: gripping tales of violence and vengeance in America’s wild, blood-soaked Southwest. But these comparisons reveal little of the man, nor do they do his writing true justice.</p>
<p>While McCarthy’s life is marked by academic pursuits and literary grants, Brown’s life mirrors those of his characters so closely they’re almost indistinguishable. He has been many things: itinerant caballero, movie stuntman, boxer, smuggler, soldier of fortune. And his writing reflects his experiences.</p>
<p>”Brown writes about the real West, not the myth,” <a title=”writes Leo Banks in the <I>Tucson Weekly</I>” href=”http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=99780″ target=”_blank”>
<font color=”#800080″>writes Leo Banks in the <i>Tucson Weekly</i>
</font>
</a>. “His calling card is authenticity. When readers put down one of his books, they have dust between their teeth.”</p>
<p>Until recently, Brown’s books have been difficult to find; many are out of print. But this October, the University of New Mexico Press published <a title=”The World in Pancho’s Eye” href=”http://www.unmpress.com/Book.php?id=11406289622336″ target=”_blank”>The World in Pancho’s Eye</a>, his memoir told through the guise of a fictional narrator. (As Brown told Banks: “I didn’t want to spend five years writing ‘I’ and ‘me.’ “) And with another <a title=”novel on the way” href=”http://www.unmpress.com/Book.php?id=11695842699936″ target=”_blank”>
<font color=”#800080″>novel on the way</font>
</a>, his first new fiction in years, there are plans to reissue some of his older works, and Brown is getting some long overdue attention.</p>
<p>–<i>Morgan Winters</i>
</p>
