Collection Development: Not Ready For Boot Hill
Aug 15, 2010Western fiction is unique among the major fiction genres recognized by public libraries (which would include romance, mystery, and sf) in that it is defined principally by its physical setting—the American West (usually anywhere west of the Mississippi River) and in particular the frontier territories of the 19th century. The popular conception of the genre is that of a thriller–cum–romance novel featuring gunslingers with plenty of bullets flying, published chiefly in paperback, and emphasizing reprints from the great pulp writers like Max Brand and Louis L'Amour.
However, the Western Writers of America (WWA), founded in 1953 to promote the genre, also recognizes nonfiction, poetry, journalism, screenwriting, and modern Westerns as subdivisions of Western writing. Its highest awards are reserved for works that qualify as literature by any standard.
The Hollywood/literary cowboy
Although the genre's roots lie in the frontier novels of James Fenimore Cooper and 19th-century dime novels, the Western's popularity rapidly grew in the early 20th century with the publication of Owen Wister's The Virginian (1902) and Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) and the development of the American cinema. From the 1920s through the 1960s, popular films drawing on the novels and short stories of such authors as A.B. Guthrie Jr. (The Big Sky), Jack Schaeffer (Shane), and L'Amour (Sackett) and extolling the bravery of the American cowboy/lawman hero inspired the imagination of the nation.
Television in the 1950s and 1960s also entertained Americans with shows like Gunsmoke and Bonanza. The magnificence of horses in motion, the flamboyance of Western costumes, and the sheer excitement of gunfights all contributed to the genre's appeal. But the popularity of these titles in print and on-screen waned in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the decline of pulp magazines, the growing expense of movie production, and shifting reading tastes.
Old genre, new appeal
Still, the Western mythos continues to resonate with writers and filmmakers. Crime fiction authors Elmore Leonard and the late Robert Parker tried their hands at Westerns, and Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 and became a Golden Globe–winning television series. With Jeff Bridges starring as Rooster Cogburn, the Coen brothers' remake of True Grit, the 1969 film that earned John Wayne his Oscar, is scheduled for release this Christmas. Both films are based on Charles Portis's classic novel.
Westerns also have penetrated new forms of popular entertainment. Last May Rockstar Games released the ultraviolent Red Dead Redemption video game. Available on multiple platforms (Xbox 360 and Playstation 3), the game has earned both high critical praise and great sales (over five million units sold by June). There are also Western role-playing games like Aces and Eights and Dead Lands (which mixes the Western and horror genres to achieve unsettling results). Younger audiences seem to relate better to the newer media, but all ages still enjoy the excitement implicit in the Western motif.
The last roundup?
Why should libraries continue to collect what some consider to be a dying genre? Although the popularity of traditional Westerns, primarily stories of strong people (usually men) in a savage land, is declining as their longstanding reader base dwindles, there is still life in the old genre. Many contemporary writers use the trappings of the Western as historical fiction to tackle social issues like the injustices done to the American Indian or the nature of vigilantism. Other authors write cross-genre novels that mix the Western with romance, mystery, sf, or Christian fiction to appeal to a broader range of readers.
The major publishers that still maintain extensive Western lists include Gale's Five Star imprint, Dorchester's Leisure Books, Berkley, Forge, and Bantam. In addition, Dorchester, which this year received the WWA's Lariat Award for its outstanding continuing commitment to the Western genre, publishes the "Classic Film Collection" series, which are reissues of classic novels like The Searchers, Destry Rides Again, and The Man from Laramie that were the basis for famous films. Other houses like St. Martin's, Simon & Schuster, Scribner, and Putnam publish their Western fiction as mainstream historical fiction.
Lassoing your collection
To get you started on building or updating your Western fiction collection, the following selective bibliography lists some good examples of the genre from traditional adventure tales and literary classics to paranormal and inspirational Westerns. Librarians seeking additional excellent suggestions can turn to John Mort's Read the High Country: A Guide to Western Books and Films (Libraries Unlimited, 2006). For additional titles, see the web version of this article.
Classic Westerns
These traditional pulp action adventure stories, or "oaters," get the Western genre label on library shelves and appeal to older male readers.
Boggs, Johnny D. Killstraight: A Western Story. Five Star: Gale Cengage. 2008. 226p. ISBN 978-1-59414-622-0. $25.95.
This 2009 Spurs Award finalist explores the clash between white and native cultures, when Comanche Daniel Killstraight gets off a train just in time to see his friend being hanged for murder.
Bonham, Frank. Trouble at Temescal: A Western Duo. Five Star: Gale Cengage. 2010. 209p. ed. by Bill Pronzini. ISBN 978-1-59414-840-8. $25.95.
Two novellas by a prolific and acclaimed author. Trouble at Temescal deals with mustangers in conflict with squatters, while two strong men clash over the land itself in King of the Defiances.
Brand, Max. Iron Dust. Five Star: Gale Cengage. 2010. 282p. ISBN 978-1-59414-836-1. $25.95.
Mild-mannered blacksmith Andrew Lanning becomes an outlaw when forced to kill a lawman to save his own life. Only his love for Anne Withero keeps him going. By the author of the classic Destry Rides Again.
Butts, J. Lee. Hell To Pay: The Life and Violent Times of Eli Gault. Berkley. 2009. 186p. ISBN 978-0-425-22865-4. pap. $5.99.
Outlaw Eli Gault tells his own story, one gunfight after another.
Drake, Jerry S. Aftermath. Avalon. 2009. 256p. ISBN 978-0-8034-9990-4. $23.95.
Mitch Ellsworth did his time for banditry after the Civil War, but an old "friend" wants him to resume his outlaw ways.
Estleman, Loren D. The Book of Murdock. Forge. 2010. 271p. ISBN 978-0-7653-1600-4. $23.99.
Page Murdock returns, this time as a gun-toting preacher trying to clean up the outlaw town of Owen, TX. In the wake of Elmer Kelton's 2009 death, the five-time Spur Award winner is now the genre's preeminent author.
Hubbard, L. Ron. The Baron of Coyote River. Galaxy Pr. 2007. 129p. ISBN 978-1-59212-304-9. pap. $9.95.
The founder of Scientology was also one of the best pulp writers of the 1940s. Two exciting Western stories are collected here in a colorful pulp format.
Johnstone, William W. Trail of the Mountain Man. Kensington. 2009. 298p. ISBN 978-0-7582-4273-0. $12; pap. Pinnacle: Kensington. 2010. ISBN 978-0-7860-1297-8. $5.99.
Gold-hungry speculators run into trouble when they try to drive mountain man Smoke Jensen off his small Colorado ranch.
Kelton, Elmer. Other Men's Horses. Forge. 2009. 268p. ISBN 978-0-7653-2051-3. $24.99; pap. Aug. 2010. ISBN 978-0-7653-6030-4. $6.99.
Another manhunt for Texas Ranger Andy Pickard, where the man on the run isn't really a hardened outlaw. By a giant of the genre.
McCoy, Max. Canyon Diablo. Pinnacle: Kensington. 2010. 272p. ISBN 978-0-7860-2120-8. pap. $6.99.
Estranged brothers Jacob and Isaac Gamble are forced to team up to avenge a massacre and take a fortune from the West's deadliest town of outlaws.
McGuire, Tim. Texas Cowboys. Berkley. 2009. 323p. ISBN 978-0-425-22899-9. pap. $5.99.
Gambler Rance Cash tangles with Jesse James and Wild Bill Hickok while trying to get his friend Jody Barnes out of jail.
Sweazy, Larry D. The Rattlesnake Season. Berkley. 2009. 310p. ISBN 978-0-425-23064-0. pap. $5.99.
Texas Ranger Josiah Wolfe has to escort an old friend–turned–outlaw to a date with a hangman's noose.
Western Romances
Aimed at female readers, these romances are very popular today—something about good girls and bad men make for good reading.
Edwards, Cassie. Savage Sun. Leisure: Dorchester. 2009. 320p. ISBN 978-0-8439-5879-9. pap. $7.99.
In post–Civil War Arkansas, half-white Cherokee chief Tall Moon finds his soul mate in dislocated widow Rowena Dowell.
Kenny, Janette. A Cowboy Christmas. Zebra: Kensington. 2009. 344p. ISBN 978-1-4201-0658-9. pap. $5.99.
Rancher Reid Barclay has trouble brewing on the range and love brewing in his kitchen.
Miller, Linda Lael. McKettricks of Texas: Austin. HQN: Harlequin. 2010. 384p. ISBN 978-0-373-77446-3. pap. $7.99.
The First Lady of the West dishes out another love story involving a member of the cowboy McKettrick clan. It's a series. Gotta read them all.
Smith, Bobbi. The Gunfighter. Zebra: Kensington. 2009. 445p. ISBN 978-1-4201-0531-5. pap. $5.99.
Half-breed Blade Masters finds romance while escorting beautiful Angel Windsor to California through a very dangerous land.
Inspirational Westerns
Tales of faith and salvation in the West.
McCurdy, Katie. Journey of Faith. Outskirts Pr. (Legacy of Purpose, Bk. 1). 2008. 296p. ISBN 978-1-4327-2601-0. pap. $12.95.
Young Faith Martin and her family travel west in 1855, but when she is captured by brutal outlaws, her Christian faith is all she has to save her.
Oke, Janet. When Calls the Heart. Bethany House. (Canadian West, Bk. 1). 2005. 224p. ISBN 978-0-7642-0011-3. pap. $13.99.
Fighting to survive on the Canadian frontier, Elizabeth falls in love with a Mountie.
The Paranormal West
Although harder to find, Westerns can wander into strange territory.
Borelli, Frank. A Cop's Nightmare 2: Vampires in the Old West. PublishAmerica. 2006. 211p. ISBN 978-1-4241-5044-1. pap. $24.95.
Morgan Blackwell and Chuck Bendetti time travel to the 1860s to battle a conspiracy to re-create the state of Colorado as a "pure" vampire colony.
Johnstone, William W. with J.A. Johnstone. The Last Gunfighter: Sudden Fury. Pinnacle: Kensington. 2009. 314p. ISBN 978-0-7860-2003-4. pap. $5.99.
Legendary gunfighter Frank Morgan finds both love and Sasquatch in the forests of northern California.
Western Mysteries
Hillerman, Tony. The Shape Shifter. Harper: HarperCollins. 2007. 322p. ISBN 978-0-06-056347-9. pap. $9.99.
Retired Navajo Tribal Police lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is called upon once again to solve a crime that harks back to an unsolved case early in his career. (LJ 9/1/06)
Hockensmith, Steve. Holmes on the Range. Minotaur: St. Martin's. 2007. 304p. ISBN 978-0-312-35804-4. pap. $13.95.
An illiterate cowboy uses Sherlock Holmes's method of deduction to solve a murder mystery on a ranch. (LJ 11/1/05)
Johnson, Craig. Another Man's Moccasins: A Walt Longmire Mystery. Viking. 2008. 304p. ISBN 978-0-670-01861-1. $24.95; pap. Penguin. 2009. ISBN 978-0-14-311552-6. $14.
In this 2009 Spur Award winner for best Western short novel, Sheriff Walt Longmire and his Cheyenne friend Henry Standing Bear deal with murder and human slave trafficking in the Montana wilderness. (LJ 6/1/08)
Historical Novels of the West
Cobb, Thomas. Shavetail. Scribner. 2008. 384p. ISBN 978-1-4165-6119-4. $25; pap. Berkley. 2010. ISBN 978-0-425-23413-6. $15.
A young Eastern dude learns about life in the Arizona desert from a corrupt Army mule skinner. (LJ 12/07)
Hall, Oakley. Warlock. New York Review of Books. 2005. 471p. ISBN 978-1-59017-161-5. pap. $16.95.
A gritty 1958 Western based loosely on the life of Wyatt Earp. (LJ 3/1/06)
Parker, Robert B. Brimstone. Putnam. 2009. 304p. ISBN 978-0-399-15571-0. $25.95; pap. Berkley. ISBN 978-0-425-23461-7. $9.99.
Gunslinger lawmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch bring a bad woman to the bad town of Brimstone and run into a bad hombre named Pike.
Wheeler, Richard S. Snowbound. Forge. 2010. 302p. ISBN 978-0-7653-1662-2. $25.95.
A biographical novel about explorer John Fremont trying to find a viable railroad route through the snowbound Colorado mountains.
Williams, John. Butcher's Crossing. New York Review of Books. 2007. 274p. ISBN 978-1-59017-198-1. pap. $14.95.
In this 1960 revisionist Western, Will Andrews wanders west in 1870 looking for a natural paradise but gets caught in an orgy of slaughter that changes his life.
Award-Winning Westerns
For the list of the best Western fiction since 1953, check out the Western Writers of America's Spur Awards at: www.westernwriters.org/spur_award_history.htm. The WWA also surveyed its members and compiled a list of the Best Westerns of the 20th century; www.westernwriters.org/best_westerns.htm.
Clark, Walter Van Tilburg. The Ox-Bow Incident. Modern Library. 2004. 288p. ISBN 978-0-8129-7258-0. pap. $5.95.
In this 1940 classic, tragedy ensues when law and order are abandoned.
Grey, Zane. Riders of the Purple Sage. Leisure: Dorchester. 2006. 358p. ISBN 978-0-8439-5601-6. pap. $6.99.
Jane Withersteen gets both protection and romance from wandering gunman Lassiter. Grey also mixes in serious themes (religious intolerance and persecution) in this quintessential Western.
Kelton, Elmer. The Time It Never Rained. Forge. 2008. 416p. ISBN 978-0-7653-6058-8. pap. $6.99.
Texas rancher Charlie Flagg struggles to maintain his independence in a time of change and federal regulation. This novel of the modern West caused the WWA to vote Kelton the greatest Western writer of all time.
L'Amour, Louis. Hondo. Bantam. 2004. 208p. ISBN 978-0-553-80299-3. $12.
Hondo Lane, a cavalry dispatch rider, finds himself protecting a woman and her young son in Apache country.
McMurtry, Larry. Lonesome Dove. S. & S. 2000. 864p. ISBN 978-0-684-87122-6. $32.
Two old ex–Texas Rangers decide to drive 1000 cattle from Texas to Montana. This 15th-anniversary edition celebrates the Old West, namely cowboys, Native Americans, gunfights, hardships on the trail, romance, friendship, and death.
Michener, James A. Centennial. Random. 2007. 998p. ISBN 978-0-8129-7842-1. pap. $17.
Michener wasn't content to tell one Western story. This epic spans generations, with special attention to the Native Americans displaced by the settling of the West.
Schaefer, Jack. Shane. Laurel Leaf. 1983. 160p. ISBN 978-0-553-27110-2. pap. $6.99.
Shane, a wandering cowboy, takes the side of homesteaders against a bullying rancher. The basis for the classic movie starring Alan Ladd.
Wister, Owen. The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains. Oxford Univ. (World's Classics). 2009. 400p. ISBN 978-0-19-955410-2. pap. $11.95.
This 1902 tale of a range war between ranchers and rustlers set the mold for the courageous cowboy hero.
Web Addendum
Brandvold, Peter. The Graves at Seven Devils: Lou Prophet, Bounty Hunter. Wheeler Pub. (Wheeler Large Print Western). 2009. 399p. ISBN 978-1-4104-1844-9. $24.95.
The seventh series titles finds Lou Prophet and his sometime lover Louisa Bonaventure on the trail of the Three of a Kind gang.
Gaydos, Mark E. Will Orch: Trouble in Topeka. Outskirts Pr. 2008. 128p. ISBN 978-1-4327-1832-9. pap. $10.95.
God in the Old West.
Kelton, Elmer. Texas Standoff: A Novel of the Texas Rangers. Forge. Sept. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-0-7653-2579-2. $24.99.
In the ninth and final novel of the series, Ranger Andy Pickard and partner Logan Daggett investigate a series of killings and cattle thefts.
Sherman, Jory. The Savage Trail. Thorndike Pr. (Thorndike Large Print Western). 2008. 287p. ISBN 978-1-4104-1129-7. $27.95.
John Savage tracks down the outlaw gang who killed his parents.
