Pick Up the Gun, My Son: the 1951 Western and Its Appalachian Pulp Author

A bounty hunter is haunted by a traumatic past he believes is tied to a ruthless villain. A young boy on a spiritual quest finds his future threatened by that same man. In the dense forests of the American Northwest, their fates intertwine in a raw and spiritual psychological Western.But the story of the forgotten 1951 film Pick Up the Gun, My Son is only half the story.This is also the tale of its creator, Tracy Little, a pulp author who transformed her own journey of surviving child molestation into a search for meaning—a struggle mirrored in her characters. It is the story of Hollywood legends like Tyrone Power, Orson Welles, and Henry Fonda, who, compelled by Little’s vision, joined her in offering the public an uncommon story about the pursuit of purpose.