SOURCE: "Frederick Remington: The Artist as Local Colorist," in South Dakota Review, Vol. 12, No. 4, Winter, 1974-75, pp. 76-88.

In the following essay, Erisman considers Remington's written works, seeing them primarily as examples of local color fiction that occasionally supersede this designation.

Frederic Remington (1861-1909), American painter and sculptor, needs no introduction; Frederic Remington, American author, is virtually unknown. No one having the sketchiest acquaintance with the American West can fail to recognize either a Remington bronze or a Remington oil. "The Bronco Buster," for example, or "Coming Through the Rye," with its four carousing cowboys, is as familiar as "The Fight for the Waterhole." "Dash for the Timber," or "A Cavalryman's Breakfast on the Plains." All are commonplaces. By contrast, the very titles of Remington's books are unfamiliar, and the number of persons who can claim a first-hand acquaintance with Sundown Leflare (1899),John Ermine of the Yellowstone (1902), or...