Talk:Last of the Duanes (novel)

Original magazine version?

H. Roosevelt, I see you've worked on this so I thought I'd ping you to ask this question. Per this page there was an original magazine story called "The Last of the Duanes", but that's not mentioned here. Was "The Lone Star Rangers" another version of the same story? Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 10:56, 19 September 2023 (UTC)

It is not. "The Lone Star Rangers" was a separate story written around the same time as "The Last of the Duanes" featuring two protagonists named Russ Sittell and Vaughan Steele that would be published as a novel under the title "Rangers of the Lone Star".

Understandable misconceptions surrounding the two stories seem to originate as a result of their complicated publishing history in relation to "The Lone Star Ranger". The forewards written by Loren Grey in the Leisure Books editions I own of both "The Last of the Duanes" and "Rangers of Lone Star" detail how "The Lone Star Ranger" is a hybrid version of the books put together by publishers that lifted portions of the narrative of "Rangers of the Lone Star" to serve as the 2nd half of the novel, in turn having Buck Duane take the places of both Russ Sittell and Vaughan Steele.

Of note, "Rangers of the Lone Star" on its own bears some connection to "The Last of the Duanes", making several references to events and characters from the latter. Namely, Buck Duane being mentioned by name at a few points and his exploits being alluded to as having taken place at some point prior to the narrative. H. Roosevelt (talk) 01:55, 21 September 2023 (UTC)