The Dustbowl and tequila aren’t likely to erase the regrets haunting the Fourth Horseman, but when annihilation is your sole purpose how can you find substance for your soul?
“Raising Arizona meets Joe Black.”
First, an introduction.
Some have called these Lost DMB Files “the most startling discovery to never be made.”
Today I welcome you into the growing number of people who’ve made that discovery. As means of introduction, let me just say some conspiracies remain theories. Others become obsessions. Exhumed 100 years after their penning, the Lost DMB Files will reinterpret the way you see the world (or the way it sees you).
During the 1930’s dime novelist and pulp fiction writer, David Mark Brown (no relation that I know of), mysteriously disappeared. Until recently, his obscure writings had all but been forgotten. The Truth in History Society contends his pulpy brand of fiction preserves a secret history, a history able to reclaim our future (if the war it has unleashed doesn’t destroy us in the process).
One thing is for sure. These double-barreled western, dieselpunk thrillers are an unadulterated joy to read. And while each lost file can be enjoyed on its own, together they provide an intriguing reinterpretation of history. As they say, the truth shall set you free!
A letter to the reader of Fourth Horseman
Perhaps the most bizarre and off-beat published work of David Mark Brown, Fourth Horseman has for the most part been maligned by even much of the Truth in History Society. While not the official stance, members of the THS have voiced concern that the outlandish moral tale contributes to widespread mockery of the Lost DMB Files. Indeed the story is most oft quoted as argument against the historicity of Brown’s broader works.
Ironically, this controversy has given the story rise to the crest of the public’s awareness of the lost files, preserving it more so than any other. Which is to say that still nearly no one has heard of it. (Best I can tell, over 100 print copies exist).
In an apparent minority of one, I contend that Fourth Horseman deserves the spotlight.
Despite the story’s sometimes garish prose and obvious focus on the fourth horseman of the apocalypse as a burned-out recluse, upon closer reading the entire tale seems woven around tiny clues hidden amongst the text. It is my theory that these facts were so explosive during Brown’s day that the only means of broadcasting them to the outside world was to bury them even deeper in fiction than he had previously.
While reading Fourth Horseman in this light, as allegory within allegory, truly ghastly implications can be made. (Which I will not reveal for the sake of those readers who wish not to make them!) But for aficionados of truth, this lurid little tale is a must read, and so I include it with this first volume of Lost DMB Files. On that note I invite you to enjoy Fourth Horseman, the story most lost among the lost files.
Professor Jim “Buck” Buckner
Department of Geology, University of Texicas, Austin
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Follow this link for more on the Lost DMB Files. And enjoy the show!