Classic Western Literature

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and widely considered to be Edna Ferber’s greatest achievement, So Big is a classic novel of turn-of-the-century Chicago. So Big is the unforgettable story of the indomitable Selina Peake DeJong and her struggles to stay afloat and maintain her dignity in the face of a challenging marriage, widowhood, and single parenthood.

Acclaimed as one of Joseph Conrad's finest literary achievements, this gripping novel deftly depicts the political turmoil of nineteenth-century Russia and follows the dramatic developments in the life of a student, Razumov, as he prepares for a career in the czarist bureaucracy. In a plot that twists and turns, Razumov unwittingly becomes embroiled in a revolutionary conspiracy when he gives refuge to a fellow student who assassinated a public official. Increasingly enmeshed in the radical's political intrigue, he betrays the anarchist who had placed blind faith in him.

The year is 1872. Twelve-year-old Matthew Wilcox leads a charmed life on his family's sprawling ranch in Washington Territory, until a series of tragic events leave him orphaned and in the clutches of a vicious band of outlaws. Threatened by the gang leader's perverted cousin, Top Hat, Matthew also faces Indian attacks, dangerous wildlife, and a deadly snowstorm. He survives, but burns with an overwhelming hunger for revenge.

Harlan establishes himself as the protector of Barbara Morgan and deals out punishment to the girl's enemies through the lightning flash of drawn guns.

Young Texas Ranger Russ Sittell is undercover searching for the head of a gang of rustlers - working with his ranger mentor and idol, Vaughn Steele. Staying undercover is difficult. Both rangers have difficulty staying focused while falling in love - can they uncover the criminals and keep love in its rightful place? Zane Grey tells the story in The Rustlers of Pecos County.

Willis Lander was once the T-Bar ranch's best bronc buster. Then came the day when a stallion as black as pitch and as mean as a rattler shattered his knee. Unable to perform the duties required of a cowboy, Willis took the only job he felt capable of handling - minding the line shack 40 miles from the ranch - and secluded himself from the pity of his peers in the Wyoming wilderness. Now, the T-Bar is being sold, leaving Willis to wonder whether the new owner will want to keep a broken bronc buster on the payroll.

Duster Dorword's first cattle drive is almost the death of him. Will he survive the harsh trail life, Mexican bandits, and a kidnapping? Rescue comes from the most unlikely place - but will it come in time?

The Wilcox and Son Detective Agency is working on its second case file, but Matthew and his son Chance are beginning to think they might have bit off more than they can chew. Their investigation into a series of claim-jumps near the booming mining community of Wallace, Idaho, suddenly turns deadly as one witness after another turns up dead. It turns out that the theft of land and mineral rights is only the beginning of a much deeper conspiracy. Matthew and Chance follow the leads as best they can, knowing full well that their investigation has turned into a game of cat and mouse.

In this third book in the Dead Man series, Marshal Matthew Wilcox heads out alone to find and capture one of the worst villains he will ever face. Heartsick, he traces a convoluted trail of murder, mayhem, and deceit...from the high gates of the Walla Walla State Penitentiary to Seattle and on into Billings, Montana. Although Matthew feels that he must bear the burden of a "deadman’s revenge" by himself, he will find help and succor in his travels from his friends, Sheriff Roy Smithers, Deputy Dicky McNulty, Calamity Jane, Liver Eating Johnson...and his son, Chance.

The year is 1807. Josh and Gabe Dent are two brothers living on the far frontier of a young America. Their lives are jolted when their parents are brutally murdered by a gang of thieves. The two frontiersmen ride to hunt down the killers. The trail of vengeance is not an easy one. In the years that follow, Josh and Gabe find themselves answering the call of the West. But as bountiful as it is, the land is fraught with danger and bloodshed.

In 1829, Jacob and Martin left Kentucky to become mountain men, trappers of the Rocky Mountains. The rugged mountains that lay beyond America’s frontier remained mostly unexplored. In those days, the killing was good. But the two young men would also find that life would be hardscrabble in the high frontier. They would face grizzly bears and hostile Indians. And they would risk horse wrecks and mountain storms to trade their furs each year at the rendezvous.

A classic work of Texas fiction from M.E.M. Davis, Under the Man-Fig was first published in1895. Part romance, part satire, and part realism, this entertaining novel takes place in the fictional town of Thornham on the Texas Gulf Coast. Under the sprawling branches of the ancient man-fig tree in the town square, all the male gossips of Thornham sit around and spin their colorful yarns - and in so doing, unwittingly weave a folk history of the Old South. This important work resounds with a reading from narrator Sally Darling.

From the master of the western comes a tale of love tested by the rugged life of the American Southwest. Glenn Kilbourne returned from World War I a changed man. Suffering from shell shock and disillusioned by what he witnessed, he can no longer stomach his high-flying former life in New York City. In the canyons of Arizona he finds a kind of peace with himself, and has no desire to go back to his old life. Where does this leave his glamorous fiancé Carley?

When a man known only as The Deacon set up camp outside Rookwood, a murder of crows took to unnatural, moonlit flight. The crows came to Rookwood; trouble soon to follow. Things were already strange in that God-forsaken town, but no one could have predicted the forces and fates about to meet in a dust-bowl clearing in the desert. A Preacher. A Demon. An Angel. A Gunslinger.

Young Bradon McTavish watches the bluecoats brutally hang his father and destroy everything he's known, and he escapes their wrath into the gun smoke and blood of war. Captured and paroled, only if he'll head west of the war, he rides the river into the wilds of the new territory of Montana where savages and grizzlies await. He discovers new friends and old enemies, and a woman formerly forbidden to him.

Kapitän Kaiman heißt der gefährliche Seeräuber, von dessen üblen Machenschaften die Titelerzählung berichtet. In ihr gibt es zudem ein Wiedersehen mit Winnetou und den "Verkehrten Toasts". Die übrigen Geschichten schildern voller Spannung abenteuerliche Episoden aus dem Leben erprobter Westmänner.

In book one - No Man’s Land - Ballard helped save a widow and her daughter from a hostile land grab in West Texas. Now, needing some cash, Jack has joined a cattle drive in Bandera, Texas and will serve as security and “Nighthawker” on the Western Trail heading toward Dodge City, Kansas. The trail, however, is beset with trouble. Storms, cattle thieves, and Indian attacks follow Jack and the Triple T cattle drive, and the further north they go the worse it gets.

James Cooper and Henry Newton Brown form a close friendship when, along with Billy the Kid, they fight in the Lincoln County War. After that, James and Henry move on, and their bond of friendship growing even stronger as James becomes a crusading newspaper editor and Henry, a town marshal feared by outlaws and lauded by his peers and the towns he served. But something goes wrong, and in an emotive moment, the two best friends find themselves face-to-face in a dramatic and poignant confrontation.

Noah Gates is a family appropriate Western novel. Noah starts out to find the thieves who stole his herd of trade horses, but time and weather wipe out all signs of their movements. With nothing else pressing on his life he wanders to Deadwood for the winter and then to Dakota Territory, with troubles and another theft along the way. Heading towards the Colorado gold fields he agrees to guide Dora across the Montana plains, leaving her in Miles City. After a summer in the high up mountains he decides to find Dora again. Humor and romance ensue.

Nine-year-old Daniel Monroe’s life is shattered when a wagon train heading west to Oregon from Kentucky is attacked by outlaws and his family is slaughtered. Only luck and reluctant help from a cold and sullen man named Jacob Conrad enables him to survive. Dan follows Jake Conrad into an uncertain future and although his adopted father remains aloof and forever troubled, Dan learns to love the man who is as wild as the land around them, as uncompromising as the weather and, underneath his gruff exterior, as tender as a mountain sunrise.