Classic Western Literature

In frontier Montana, Cassidy is a busy seamstress with a hidden history, but her desire for a family would force her to reveal the details of her life. Will she find the strength to take that risk?

The Shootist is John Bernard Books, the last surviving top gunfighter in a vanishing American West. He rides into El Paso in the year 1901, to be told by a doctor that he has a terminal illness. As word spreads that the famous assassin has reached the end, an assortment of vultures gather to feast upon his corpse. Most men would end their days quietly, but Books outwits them all by selecting the where, the when and the manner of his death.

Jeston Nash bears a striking resemblance to his cousin Jesse Woodson James of Clay County Missouri. After killing a Yankee soldier in self-defense, Jeston meets his cousins, Jesse and Frank, and joins them to fight in Quantrill's guerilla forces. Later, after the war, he rides with the James-Younger gang as they invent their special brand of bank and train robbery. All the while, Jeston seeks vengeance against Daniel Zanone of the Free Kansas Militia - the man responsible for the death of his child.

Terrence Corcoran carried a badge in Virginia City, Nevada, until one day, in a drunken stupor, he shot the sheriff. Now he's returning to the Comstock looking to get his badge back and stumbles into a conspiracy that might put the sheriff, district attorney, and others in jail for a long time. A lovely working girl is brutally murdered, a Hungarian duke wants a Wells Fargo gold shipment, and the sheriff rehires him after first kicking him in a most tender spot.

Some of us were lucky enough to have one passionate, funny, inspiring English teacher who helped us fall in love with books. Add a lifetime of teaching Dharma - authentic, traditional approaches to meditation and awakening - and you get award-winning author Dean Sluyter. With droll humor and irreverent wisdom, he unpacks the Dharma of more than twenty major writers, from William Blake to Dr. Seuss, inspiring listeners to deepen their own spiritual life and see literature in a fresh new way: as a path of awakening.

The year is 1928. On the outskirts of a large German city, three young men are earning a thin and precarious living. Fully armed young storm troopers swagger in the streets. Restlessness, poverty, and violence are everywhere. For these three, friendship is the only refuge from the chaos around them. Then the youngest of them falls in love and brings into the group a young woman who will become a comrade as well, as they are all tested in ways they can have never imagined.

The country is America; the woman is Alexandra Bergson, a fiercely independent young Swedish immigrant girl who inherits her father's farm in Nebraska. A model of emotional strength, courage, and resolve, Alexandra fights long and hard to transform her father's patch of raw, wind-blasted prairie into a highly profitable business. A gripping saga of love, murder, greed, failure, and triumph, O Pioneers! vividly portrays the hardships of prairie life.

These four novels remain classics 100 years after they were published. They not only shaped the literature of the 20th century, but they altered our views of life and reality—and what can and cannot be written about. These novels—all written a century ago—remain gripping and unforgettable. These audio versions bring their powerful narratives vividly to life for the modern listener.

“All Quiet on the Western Front” is one of the most powerful anti-war novels ever written—a timeless classic that strips away the myths of glory and honor to reveal the brutal, dehumanizing truth of warfare. Told through the eyes of Paul Bäumer, a young German soldier on the front lines of World War I, this harrowing narrative plunges listeners into the mud-soaked trenches, the constant threat of death, and the emotional numbness born of unspeakable loss.

Smoke Jensen is the most powerful man on the Sugarloaf frontier - and he's all that stands between a greedy group of Eastern slickers and their schemes for a criminal empire in the Rockies. When Smoke heads back to Boston with his wife, it gives his enemies the opening they'd been waiting for: to kill the mountain man and take over the West. But even on the unfamiliar turf of back alleys and teeming docks, Smoke is more than most men can handle...until his wife is kidnapped.

After completing their fort, the residents of Heck's Valley brace for winter. Many speak of spring—and the possibility of staying here and working together to build a town in this breathtaking wilderness. Heck and Hope don't know what the future holds, but so long as they are together, they face it with confidence. But life on the frontier is never easy. They have to guard their stock, keep the peace, and prepare defenses for spring when the Sioux warriors who killed Seeker's parents will again come raiding. Meanwhile, Heck must decide what to do about his amazing discovery.

In 1828, few white men had seen the Rocky Mountains, those that had were the rugged few we call Mountain Men. Zach Connors was one of the best, known to the Indians as Grizzly Killer. He was both feared and respected throughout the Rockyies. Along with his dog, Jimbo, Running Wolf, his Ute partner, and their wives, they travel to Rendezvous, where they battle the dreaded Blackfeet and Zach fights for both justice and honor. After, they come face to face with a man eating grizzly, and confront those seeking revenge for the justice he dealt.

Abbie Mackenzie dreamed of becoming a fine lady like her aristocratic grandmother, devoting herself to music and art. But at eighteen Abbie found a different dream, turning away from the promise of a comfortable life as a doctor’s wife to marry handsome, quiet Will Deal. Together, they eagerly accepted the challenge of homesteading in Nebraska territory, where the prairies stretched as far as the eye could see, and only the strongest survived for long.

A brand-new Western adventure from the author of The Legend of Jake Jackson. This is a rip-roaring new adventure that puts a United States marshal directly on the trail of evil. Caleb Jacobs made a vow the day his family was unmercifully slaughtered by a cutthroat gang of outlaws. He dedicated his life to protecting those who could not protect themselves. Caleb swore that he would bring justice to the frontier by the gun or by the noose.

This final Boxed set of Zane Grey's novels features three of his most popular titles: The Border Legion, Betty Zane, and The Desert of Wheat.

They rode into town like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Four armed outlaws bringing their own brand of hell to Paris, Texas. First they rob the First National Bank. Then they take a woman hostage as insurance. When Perley Gates learns that local waitress Becky Morris is in the hands of these tough customers, he joins a posse with the Triple-G ranch hands to get her back. Problem is, the outlaws are heading toward Red River - straight into Indian Territory. That's where the ranch hands draw the line. But Perley won't give up.

A harrowing tale of camaraderie, loss, and the dehumanizing brutality of war, All Quiet on the Western Front follows young German soldier Paul Bäumer as he endures the horrors of World War I. Erich Maria Remarque's timeless masterpiece exposes the devastating impact of conflict on the human soul.

While portraying life in a new settlement on New York's Lake Otsego in the final years of the 18th century, Cooper deftly explores the cultural and philosophical underpinnings of the American experience. He contrasts the natural codes of the hunter and woodsman, Natty Bumppo, and his Indian friend John Mokegan with the more rigid structure of law required by a more complex society.

The Prairie marks the final chapter in James Fenimore Cooper's great saga of American frontiersman Natty Bumppo. Though nearly 90 in 1804, Bumppo is still competent as a frontiersman and trapper, now on the Great Plains. Once more he is drawn into conflict with society in the form of an emigrant party led by the surly Ishmael Bush and his miscreant brother-in-law, Abiram White. And once again this great man of nature is called upon to exhibit his courage and resourcefulness to rescue the innocent.

Based on historical characters and events, A Sweetness to the Soul recounts the captivating story of young, spirited Oregon pioneer Jane Herbert who at the age of 12 faces a tragedy that begins a life-long search for forgiveness and love. In the years that follow, young Jane finds herself involved in an unusual and touching romance with a dreamer 16 years her senior, struggles to make peace with an emotionally distant mother, and fights to build a family of her own.