This Way Slaughter

by Bruce Olds

  I wish to thank Sarah Stegall for her generous support and good counsel, Bryce Milligan for both the keenness of his editorial vision and enviable sense of and unshakeable commitment to a finer craftsmanship, and Nancy Bocina for her patience, understanding and unqualified grace and graciousness absent which This Way Slaughter must only have expired in utero.

  About the Author

  Reared in the Upper Midwest, Bruce Olds has lived at various periods in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami and Chicago. He is the author of three award-winning works of fiction, the Pulitzer Prize nominated The Moments Lost (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007), Bucking the Tiger (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001) and the Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Raising Holy Hell (Henry Holt, 1995).

  His nonfiction work has appeared in Granta and American Heritage among other publications. His book reviews have been published in the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and the Miami Herald.

  After working his way through college as a Teamster, Olds worked for several years at daily newspapers, first in Philadelphia, then in Baltimore, as an award-winning columnist, feature writer, and book reviewer, before leaving the business mid-career to devote himself full time to writing fiction.

  His sui generis approach to his historical fictions—one that is genre-blurring, multi-dimensional, frankly collagist, and that privileges language and architecture over strict historicity—is, he suspects, in part the result of his having as an undergraduate studied under and been influenced by the pioneering literary Postmodernist scholar Ihab Hassan.

  Olds’s novel about the abolitionist John Brown, Raising Holy Hell, was an IMPAC Dublin Literary Award nominee, amd was named Novel of the Year by the Notable Books Council of the American Library Association. It also received the Quality Paperback Book Club’s New Voices Award for Fiction. Bucking the Tiger, an ALA Notable Book, was adapted for the stage as “The Confessions of Doc Holliday.” His third, set in turn-ofthe-century Chicago and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, plumbed parts of his own family history.

  The father of an adult son, Olds lives along the Atlantic Coast of northern South Carolina.

  Wings Press was founded in 1975 by Joanie Whitebird and Joseph F. Lomax, both deceased, as “an informal association of artists and cultural mythologists dedicated to the preservation of the literature of the nation of Texas.” Publisher, editor and designer since 1995, Bryce Milligan is honored to carry on and expand that mission to include the finest in American writing—meaning all of the Americas, without commercial considerations clouding the decision to publish or not to publish.

  Wings Press produces multi-cultural books, chapbooks, ebooks, recordings and broadsides that, we hope, enlighten the human spirit and enliven the mind. Everyone ever associated with Wings has been or is a writer, and we know well that writing is a transformational art form capable of changing the world, primarily by allowing us to glimpse something of each other’s souls. We believe that good writing is innovative, insightful, and interesting. But most of all it is honest. As Bob Dylan put it, “To live outside the law, you must be honest.”

  Likewise, Wings Press is committed to treating the planet itself as a partner. Thus the press uses as much recycled material as possible, from the paper on which the books are printed to the boxes in which they are shipped.

  As Robert Dana wrote in Against the Grain, “Small press publishing is personal. In essence, it’s a matter of personal vision, personal taste and courage, and personal friendships.” Welcome to our world.

  Colophon

  This first edition of This Way Slaughter, by Bruce Olds, has been printed on 55 pound Edwards Brothers “natural” paper containing a percentage of recycled fiber. Titles and dropped capitals have been set in Gunshot Rough type; the text in Adobe Caslon type. This book was designed by Bryce Milligan.

  www.wingspress.com

  Wings Press titles are distributed to the trade by the Independent Publishers Group

  www.ipgbook.com

  Also available as an ebook.

  Bruce Olds is the author of three earlier award-winning works of fiction, the Pulitzer Prize nominated The Moments Lost (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007), Bucking the Tiger (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001) and the Pulitzer Prize Finalist Raising Holy Hell (Henry Holt, 1995).

  His nonfiction work has appeared in Granta and American Heritage among other publications, and been anthologized by the Modern Library, as well as by both the MIT Press and Ohio University Press.

  After working his way through college as a Teamster, taking his B.A. in History and Literature and M.A. in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Olds worked for several years at daily newspapers, first in Philadelphia, then in Baltimore, as an award-winning feature writer, columnist, book reviewer and copy editor, before leaving the business mid-career to devote himself full time to writing fiction.