Read “The Girl Who Got Rattled,” the Stewart Edward White Story That Inspired One Chapter of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The newest Coen brothers movie, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, is an anthology film that draws heavily from two sources: Hollywood westerns—including the long-abandoned singing cowboy genre—and the 19^th and early 20^th century adventure stories. As a framing device, a hand turns the pages of a beautifully illustrated 19^th century short story collection between chapters. Ostensibly published by “Mike Zoss & Sons” in 1873, the fictional book The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and Other Tales of the American Frontier has no credited author for any of its six stories. But two of the film’s chapters are adaptations of works that do have an author: “All Gold Canyon,” which is based on a 1904 short story by Jack London of the same title, and “The Gal Who Got Rattled,” an adaptation of Stewart Edward White’s 1901 short story, “The Girl Who Got Rattled.” Both stories were first published in The Century Magazine. Please note that both spoilers and late 19^th century ideas about race and gender (i.e., extremely racist and misogynistic ones) follow.

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