The Last Ride of German Freddie
make sense of them. Perhaps something could even be published. In any case she would not give any of the notebooks to that sister Elisabeth, who would twist Freddie's words into a weapon against the Jews.
    She had been Freddie's fate, or so he claimed. Now the notebooks—Freddie's words, Freddie's thoughts—were her own destiny.
    She would embrace her fate as Freddie had embraced his, and carry it like a newborn infant from this desolation, this desert. This Tombstone.

    THE END

Afterword: The Last Ride of German Freddie

    The genesis of this story appeared on the late, lamented GEnie bulletin board—or possibly on its successor, Dueling Modems—where I mentioned (in Joe Haldeman's topic, I believe) that it would be fun to see a story in which Friedrich Nietzsche became a Western gunfighter and tested his theories of the übermensch to destruction on the frontier.
    I intended this as a joke, but when I started thinking about it, I realized that this wouldn't be a bad idea at all for a real story.   A crazed idea, yes, but still a good one.
    As is the case with most of my dabblings into alternative history, everyone in the story, from Wyatt Earp to Fellehy the Laundryman, was an actual inhabitant of Tombstone during the period of the Earp-Clanton war. Aside from introducing Freddie as a witness, and eliminating some characters (like Bat Masterson and Texas John Slaughter) who were present but had no effect on the action, I followed history very precisely up till the moment of Freddie's intervention in the O. K. Corral gunfight.
    The events in Tombstone in 1881 were chronicled faithfully in the Eastern press, and resulted in nationwide fame for the Earps and their friend, Doc Holliday. The press also popularized the term ‘cowboy,’ which afterward took on its modern meaning.
    The greatest fun I had writing the story was pastiching Nietzsche's prose style—or rather, Walter Kaufman's English version of Nietzsche's style.
    I hope that German Freddie, wherever he is, forgives me the liberty.

    Walter’s web page: http://www.walterjonwilliams.net/
    Subscribe to Walter’s newsletter: http://walterjonwilliams.us8.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=ae29e4e66fb1cb836a2fa3932&id=d6305e79f3

Similar Books

Home Safe

Elizabeth Berg

Black Valley

Charlotte Williams

Seducing Santa

Dahlia Rose

Mindbenders

Ted Krever

Angel's Shield

Erin M. Leaf

Forever and Always

Beverley Hollowed