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“[A] charming memoir of renowned western novelist Kelton's early years in the saddle, at the desk and in the trench... a pleasure through and through.” —Kirkus ReviewsVoted the “Best Western writer of all time” by his peers, Elmer Kelton wrote fifty novels that form a testament and tribute to the American West.But who is that Texas gentleman with the white Stetson and rimless eyeglasses whose friendly face appears on so many book jackets?Sandhills Boy is Kelton's memoir, a funny and poignant story of “a freckle-faced country boy, green as a gourd, a sheep ready to be sheared,” growing up in the wild, dry, sandhills of West Texas. The son of a working cowboy and ranch foreman, Elmer was expected to follow in his father's footsteps but learned at an early age that he had no talents in the cowboy's trade. Buck Kelton said Elmer was “slow as the seven-year itch,” and reluctantly supported his son's decision to become a student at the University of Texas, and, eventually, a journalist and writer.Kelton's life in ranch and oil patch Texas during the Great Depression is told with warm nostalgic humor animated with stories of the cowboys and their wives and kids who gave the time and place its special flavor. He writes with great feeling of his service in WW2 in France, Germany, and Czechoslovakia, and the romantic circumstances in which his life changed in the village of Ebensee, Austria.“The most beloved western writer alive recounts his own story of growing up in Depression-era west Texas.” —Booklist

In Comanche Dawn Mike Blakely does for the Comanche nation what Ruth Bebe Hills did for the Sioux in Hanta Yo. This landmark novel is the first time the story has been told from the point of view of the Comanches themselves. We witness the rise of one of the most powerful mounted nations in history through the eyes of a young warrior named Horseback. Born on the very day that the first horse comes to his people, Horseback matures into a leader of unquestionable courage and vision. He assumes powerful medicine granted to him by spirits encountered on a grueling vision quest, and he takes Teal, the most beautiful young woman of his tribe, as his wife and lifelong love. Guided by forces more powerful and dangerous then even he can control or explain, Horseback will face death time and time again with only his medicine and Teal to stand beside him.Failure will mean destruction not only for himself, but for his people. Success will mean unimaginable wealth for his new nation. Ancient enemies will seek to destroy him. Strange newcomers with pale skin and treacherous ways will attempt to enslave him. Even his own inner spirit powers threaten always to consume him, should he fail to respect them. Only the bravest of True Humans dare to follow Horseback on his great adventure down a trail that can lead only to glory or annihilation.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

War had killed ‘Glint'McClain's taste for gunfighting. Perhaps that is why a young hardcase could best the famous gunman and leave him for dead on the parched ground of the Arizona desert. Father Miguel finds McClain and nurses him back to health. To repay this kindness, McClain agrees to fight off the Lathrops, local mine owners who are enslaving the Indians in Miguel's parish. Yet despite his Good Samaritan ways, the townspeople want Father Miguel dead—he brings nothing but trouble, they say. And now, the Indians fear him too. Is Father Miguel a man of God or Father Diablo, a lying cheating scoundrel? McClain must take the measure of his savior, before he can take aim at the true enemy.

Johnny Montana was tall and dark, and sport a thin, neatly trimmed mustache and he had midnight black eyes. He was particular about his person; he shaved regular and put rosewater in his hair and preferred clean shirts when he could get them…Johnny Montana was the kind of man who made things happen.“You planning on sticking around these parts for the rest of your days?” That question completely changed Katie Swensen's life….She knew in an instant that her answer would be ‘no'if Johnny Montana was asking her to go away with him. They left in the late hours of a warm evening, her daddy snoring in the other room. Johnny Montana was the handsomest man she'd ever met. It wasn't until a few days later that she learned he was also a gambler, a road agent and a killer.Henry Dollar was a man that knew horses and knew how to ride them, and he knew guns and how to use them. He'd been tested by gunfire in the sixteen years he'd spent with the D Company of the Texas Rangers. Henry Dollar never shirked his duty, he never backed down, and he never took what wasn't his…but then, he just hadn't been tempted enough, yet.Eli Stagg was a hard, cruel, friendless man with a talent for hunting, tracking and killing. The family of William F. Gray, the late Senator of Arkansas, engaged Stagg to find and kill the man who shot the Senator and left him to die in the dust of the road…Pete Winter, a young lawman, was asked to escort two prisoners across Indian Territory to the court of ‘Hanging Judge'Parker…In this rich and complex novel of the Great American Frontier, these characters cross paths and raise arms as they each seek their individual destinies and desires—some will emerge victorious while others will be defeated by harsh climes and hardened men.

Sickened by war and embittered by his experience at Gettysburg, David Travis heads west to escape the pain of war—and his past.In a bar in the hills north of El Paso, he hears an old prospector spin a crazy tale about a wagon train loaded with Spanish gold that vanished in the West Texas hills in the early part of the seventeenth century.The next day, Travis finds the old man near death—it seems that certain others believed the prospector's tale and forced him to tell all he knew. Travis decides to team up with the dead man's daughter and head into the mountains to find if the old man's claims of a lost treasure are indeed true. They are not alone in their mountain quest, and their hidden adversaries have already proven that they are willing to kill for treasure.

In Doug Bowman's Houston, trail boss John Calloway and two of his faithful companions have been robbed and shot to pieces in a Kansas gully by the same five drovers who had helped them deliver a large heard of cattle to the rails. When the five drovers-turned-outlaws scatter to hell and gone, they have no idea that one of the men they have riddled with lead will live to call their names. And when Calloway's best friend Camp Houston gets on their trail, it's just a matter of time before they pay for their dastardly deed with their own blood.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Peter D. Buckow hadn't had much luck in his short life. An abused and neglected child, he struggled hard to overcome the disadvantages of his upbringing. He worked hard as Henry Blough's ranch hand; he labored from sunup ‘til sundown; he never shirked a task. But when Henry Blough tries to cheat the sixteen-year-old Buck of his pay, he decides to take his wages out in steers…Caught red handed by the deputy Sheriff, poor Peter Buckow is hanged with his own rope and left for dead.Except Buckow didn't die.He survived and was given an extraordinary chance at a second life. And now he had to choose between the easy path of violence and vengeance, or a life of honest hard work with no guarantee of success.

When a federal penitentiary, ‘Hellhole,'was built in Yuma, the native Quechans discovered a way in which they could succeed in the world of the white man; they put their uncanny tracking abilities to use catching and returning prison fugitives. Immune to the searing heat, cunning, and tenacious, the Indians moved like wraiths pursuing dangerous criminals. Of all the Quechans, perhaps the greatest tracker was Ho-Nas Good. He was tall and powerfully strong, and in his youth, saw nothing wrong in aiding the white man. He dreamed of wealth and saw that even an Indian could do much in the white man's world—if he had money.Honas prospered; he was happy with his land, his wealth, and his pretty young wire. Until the day that three of Yuma's toughest prisoners escaped the territorial prison and brutally raped and murdered his wife. When they were caught, the bigoted judge added a paltry few years to their sentences.Honas changed. He became as a new man. A man charged with hate; a man powered by the overwhelming desire for revenge. Honas put his whole life and his considerable skills in the service of his revenge. And the terror came to Hellhole.

It was a lonely life the Wolfer led. He ate when he felt hungry, drank as he wanted, and slept where he fell. It hadn't always been that way…Once there had been a cabin filled with the warmth of Katie's smile, a bright flower that touched every corner of his life with love…that was all gone now. He'd left her one furious winter's night, and when he'd returned, Katie lay in the snow outside their cabin, dead, surrounded by wolf tracks.Roan McCrae had been taking his revenge on wolves ever since. Soon, however, he learns that the wolf isn't the real scourge of the land. That epithet belongs to Azle Steppe and his men. A powerful man, Azle Steppe's greed knows few limitations. When he decides to take over the valley, Roan McCrae is the first one he'll burn out and run off.And then the Wolfer will become the Wolf..and the Hunter will become the Hunted.

Dee Brown's captivating novel based on the true story of the Chicago ConspiracyDee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, turns to the Civil War for this rollicking tale of romance and intrigue. The story is based on the undercover scheme known as the Chicago Conspiracy, a plan by which Confederate agents and sympathizers in the North tried to free rebel prisoners in Chicago. Brown's thrilling tale revolves around Charley Heywood, a Confederate major, and Belle Rutledge, an actress and quick-minded double agent tasked with spying on the object of her affections. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Dee Brown including rare photos from the author's personal collection.

The New York Times–bestselling saga of Creek Indian Mary Musgrove and her descendants, whose lives parallel the American story through two centuries. In Creek Mary's Blood, Dee Brown fictionalizes the astonishing true story of Mary Musgrove—born in 1700 to a Creek tribal chief—and five generations of her family. By tracing her struggles with colonists in Georgia, and then the lives of her two sons (one born to a white trader and the other to a Cherokee warrior), Brown's novel creates a gripping panorama of the American Indian experience in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His narrative spans colonial rebellion, the Trail of Tears, and the Civil War—in which Mary's descendants fought on both sides of the conflict. Rich with historical detail and human drama, this is a novel filled with “dark, inexorable energy” by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Dee Brown including rare photos from the author's personal collection.

The Spur Award-winning author revisits one of the most memorable characters in Western fiction in this “exceptional sequel” to The Good Old Boys (Booklist).Elmer Kelton introduced Texas cowboy Hewey Calloway, one of the most beloved characters in Western fiction, almost thirty years ago in The Good Old Boys. The novel was transformed into a memorable 1995 TV film starring Tommy Lee Jones and Sissy Spacek. Now Hewey returns, older if not necessarily wiser, in The Smiling Country. It is 1910 and Hewey Calloway's freewheeling life is coming to an end. The fences, trucks, and automobiles he hates are creeping into the remote “smiling country” of West Texas. When he is badly injured trying to break a renegade horse, Hewey sees the loneliness that awaits him, and regrets his decision to run away from the only woman he has ever loved, the schoolteacher Spring Renfro.

Jubal Kane was twenty-two years old. For the past year, he'd been in the saddle every day, riding from town to town on a seemingly endless search for three cold-blooded killers. They were the men who'd shot his parents in cold blood while Jubal watched, hidden inside a pile of hay.Mitchell was one of these men. And with his death, Kane found some relief from the memories that had been haunting him. But two murderers lived on. Jubal knew that until he found them, he would have no peace. So he set out again, into the wide-open country, on a quest for revenge, and most of all, the truth. It was a voyage that would lead him into the face of danger--but also into the arms of Jenny, the beautiful innocent who believed in Jubal with all her heart. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

“Solid, page-turning entertainment featuring a larger-than-life hero in MacCallister” from the greatest Western writer of the 21st century (Booklist). Divided they fall... Raised by the Shawnee, Jamie Ian MacCallister fought his way to manhood on an odyssey that took him from the Alamo to Colorado to the goldfields of California. Now, the United States is divided against itself—North against South, brother against brother, father against son. With his own sons fighting on opposing sides, MacCallister leads his Confederate Marauders into battle from Georgia to Tennessee, from Bull Run to Shiloh. When the guns of war finally fall silent, a vengeful enemy vows to add another chapter to the bloodstained pages of history... by hunting down the soldier named Jamie Ian MacCallister. Praise for the Eagles series “[A] rousing, two-fisted saga of the growing American frontier.”—Publishers Weekly

In 1829, Sam Houston was the thirty-six-year-old governor of Tennessee, a “beautiful…imperious giant genius of a man,” whose political horizons seemed limitless. The marriage of this charismatic, ambitious statesman to twenty-year-old Eliza Allen, the daughter of a prominent landholder, seemed to form the perfect social foundation on which Houston would build his glittering career. But just eleven weeks after the wedding, Eliza suddenly and inexplicably left her new husband, creating a scandal that caused the governor to resign his office in disgrace and embark on an exile that would ultimately deliver him to Texas, and a destiny even grander and more improbable than anyone could have imagined. Through decades of rumor and speculation, Sam Houston and Eliza Allen never revealed the source of their unhappiness, and carried the secret with them to their graves. The Raven's Bride is a brilliantly original novel that unravels this dark romantic mystery while illuminating a vivid and fascinating moment in America's past. In these pages, Sam Houston is presented as he must have been—a heroic figure (called the Raven by the Cherokee), vain, flamboyant, magnetic, his outsized personality fueled by a desperate need for love. And Eliza Allen is his match: a prideful, magnificent young woman, both drawn to and disturbed by her husband's grand aspirations. With the investigative acuity of a historian and the profound empathy of a gifted novelist, Elizabeth Crook has created an enthralling portrait of these star-crossed lovers and the vibrant, restless world that brought them together. Richly detailed and splendidly imagined, The Raven's Bride turns a baffling historical conundrum into a complex and deeply affecting love story.

About the great migration west, Edna Ferber wrote,'I am not belittling the brave pioneer men, but the sunbonnet as well as the sombrero helped to settle this glorious land of ours.'These westering foremothers take center stage in Walking West, Noelle Sickels's remarkable first novel of women and their families on a grueling wagon train journey across the United States.In the wet spring of 1852, a small band of Indiana farm families set off for California, lured west by the promise of a better life. The Muller party crosses treacherous rivers, slogs through mud and thunderstorms, and hauls wagons up and down mountains and over baking deserts in a seven-month journey across our raw continent.Among them is Alice Muller, a reluctant traveler forced to leave home by her husband Henry's dreams of prosperity. But the Mullers greatly underestimate the hardships they will face, and it is ultimately Alice who must draw on the deepest reserves of body and soul to lead the little group of bone-weary emigrants through their final miles. In doing so, Alice changes from a dutiful farm wife into a woman capable of deep commitment, strong actions, and profound self-knowledge.Noelle Sickels's novel takes readers across America--through Fort Laramie, Chimney Rock, the Black Hills, the Rockies, and the Sierras--and into the minds of her extraordinary characters. Offering a woman's perspective on a historical period more often portrayed through the male icons of cowboys, outlaws, and gold seekers, Walking West combines history and storytelling in a novel of astonishing authenticity and emotional power.

Frederick Schiller Faust (May 29, 1892 - May 12, 1944) was an American author known primarily for his thoughtful and literary Westerns under the pen name Max Brand. This is one of his novels.

Wiley brings together a variegated cast of characters in one of the last outposts of the American frontier, Alaska, during the gold rush of the 1890s.

A leading figure in the debate over the literary canon, Jane Tompkins was one of the first to point to the ongoing relevance of popular women's fiction in the 19th century, long overlooked or scorned by literary critics. Now, in West of Everything, Tompkins shows how popular novels and films of the American west have shaped the emotional lives of people in our time. Into this world full of violence and manly courage, the world of John Wayne and Louis L'Amour, Tompkins takes her readers, letting them feel what the hero feels, endure what he endures. Writing with sympathy, insight, and respect, she probes the main elements of the Western--its preoccupation with death, its barren landscapes, galloping horses, hard-bitten men and marginalized women--revealing the view of reality and code of behavior these features contain. She considers the Western hero's attraction to pain, his fear of women and language, his desire to dominate the environment--and to merge with it. In fact, Tompkins argues, for better or worse Westerns have taught us all--men especially--how to behave. It was as a reaction against popular women's novels and women's invasion of the public sphere that Westerns originated, Tompkins maintains. With Westerns, men were reclaiming cultural territory, countering the inwardness, spirituality, and domesticity of the sentimental writers, with a rough and tumble, secular, man-centered world. Tompkins brings these insights to bear in considering film classics such as Red River and Lonely Are the Brave, and novels such as Louis L'Amour's Last of the Breed and Owen Wister's The Virginian. In one of the most moving chapters (chosen for Best American Essays of 1991), Ttompkins shows how the life of Buffalo Bill Cody, killer of Native Americans and charismatic star of the Wild West show, evokes the contradictory feelings which the Western typically elicits--horror and fascination with violence, but also love and respect for the romantic ideal of the cowboy. Whether interpreting a photograph of John Wayne of meditating on the slaughter of cattle, Jane Tompkins writes with humor, compassion, and a provocative intellect. Her book will appeak to many Americans who read or watch Westerns, and to all those interested in a serious approach to popular culture.