Exclusive Interview with Lorin Morgan-Richards and a review of his book about Welsh immigrants who shaped America’s Wild West
Rating 3 Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“I watched the Lone Ranger as a kid and the Wild Wild West TV series with Robert Conrad,” says Welsh in the Old West author and illustrator Lorin Morgan-Richards. “Interestingly, the Lone Ranger character by Zane Grey was actually inspired by a Welsh American named John Reynolds Hughes, a Texas Ranger, whose demeanor was quiet and reserved while his call for justice was immeasurable. He served longer than any other Texas Ranger and was awarded Certificate of Valor in 1940.”
Welsh in the Old West is for anyone who loves the early American West. Many American West pioneers were from Wales…Daniel Boone, Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark, and William Fargo of Wells Fargo. There are 32 biographies of people from Wales or Welsh descent who helped make the Old West. Richards examines the lives of the Welsh cattle drovers, outlaws, inventors, military leaders, miners and the fate of the Old West ghost towns. All except two stories are about men. There are beautiful illustrations by Welsh artists curated by Morgan-Richards, who’s served as executive director of the Los Angeles St. David’s Day Festival, an annual Welsh arts and culture event in March.
“After the 2014 Los Angeles St. David’s Day Festival I was looking to curate a new Welsh book for the following year,” says Morgan-Richards. “My original intent was to have the festival at Paramount Movie Ranch in Agoura, California where they filmed How Green Was My Valley, a 1941 film about Welsh miners.”
Morgan-Richards did two years of research for the biographies. “After exhausting The Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA [a library for scholars], I scrolled through old newspapers in micro-film, investigated grave markers, and made use of genealogy resources to help fill in missing information.”
“One of the most interesting newspaper clippings I found was about the life of Anne Ellis, of Dolgellau, Wales,” says Morgan-Richards. “She came from being deserted on the streets of Kansas City at the tender age of 13, lived destitute after her first husband’s murder, established her own boarding house in raucous Dodge City, and called the outlaws and lawman of the day like she saw them…as cowardly. Anne went on to become a wealthy woman.”
Morgan-Richards has been interested in Native American and American Western history since childhood. “I remember my first book as a child was The Indians Knew by Tillie S. Pine, an early reader from 1965 explaining the cultural ways and historical resourcefulness of Native Americans and how they are applied in the sciences today. My great ancestor John Morgan left the Tredegar area of Wales and emigrated to southern Ohio in the early part of the 1800s.”
Morgan-Richards says many of the artists he chose to illustrate his book have been with him since his first Welsh art show in 2011 at the Barnsdall Art Park. “The artists are the real backbone of my art book projects and should be acknowledged…Michele Witchipoo (www.witchesbrewpress.com), Robert Karr (www.karrart.com), Rochelle Rosenkild (shellrosecreations.blogspot.com), Kimberly Wlassak (gerushiasnewworld.blogspot.com), Xavier Lopez Jr. (xavierlopezjr.blogspot.com), Welsh twins Nichola Hope (www.nicholahope.com) and Sarah Hope (www.sarahhope.com), and Welsh author and artist Jo Mazelis (twitter.com/jomazelis).”
Morgan-Richards is an author, poet and illustrator known for his children’s books, including Simon Snootle and other small stories (2009), A Boy Born from Mold and other delectable morsels (2010, paperback 2014). He wrote the novel Me’ma and the Great Mountain (2012). He’s the publisher of Celtic Family Magazine. Every week he has two web comics on Steamkat.com of The Goodbye Family and The Noodle Rut. Welsh in the Old West has not yet been optioned for TV or film.
Morgan-Richards is currently writing and illustrating a collection of children’s short stories called A Dredged Summons and Other Misplaced Bills. He’s writing and illustrating a story and hopefully a play called The Night Speaks to Me: A Posthumous Account of Jim Morrison.
Morgan-Richards lives in Studio City, California. He was born in Beebetown, Ohio, where his father’s family has lived since the late 1700s.
Welsh in the Old West: Illustrated by Lorin Morgan-Richards (Author), Jude Johnson (Foreword) Paperback: 96 pages, Publisher: A Raven Above Press (November 1, 2015)
Language: English, ISBN: 9780983002093 $20.00
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