True to Type

My long hope that tribute be paid to that classic, Jack Schafer’s “Shane,” (Book Review, June 23) is over. I am in my 91st year, was born in a log cabin, and raised in a small frontier town in the Northwest. I saw cowboys whooping it up on the streets, or near saloons in those days; recall one unforgettable scene of a horse tied to a fence, his owner asleep in the meadow.

Yes, there were true types in “Shane”--the good husband, the small, hero-worshiping boy, the wife, the hint of romance, as it would be, for these hard-riding, hard-drinking men were often handsome, carefree types, yet sentimental under it all.

The chinked log cabin, mountain meadow--perfection, perfection, and very moving. I am grateful to you for bringing this vanished scene back to me. L.W. STONE Carpinteria