Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West, most commonly between the years of 1860 and 1900. Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape of deserts and mountains. Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting a mythic vision of the plains and deserts of the American West. Critics August Nemo brings seven short stories specially selected with the best of Western's courage and adventure: - The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte - All Gold Canyon by Jack London - On the Divide by Willa Cather - The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky by Stephen Crane - The Caballero's Way by O. Henry - The Great Slave by Zane Grey - Wine in the Desert by Max Brand For more books with interesting themes, be sure to check the other books in this collection!

British novelist, playwright, and journalist who produced popular detective and suspense stories and was in his time "the king" of the modern thriller. Wallace's literary output – 175 books, 24 plays, and countless articles and review sketches – have undermined his reputation as a fresh and original writer. The author was a wholehearted supporter of Victorian and early Edwardian values and mores, which are now considered in some respects politically incorrect. In England in the 1920s Wallace was said to be the second biggest seller after the Bible. This selection specially chosen by the literary critic August Nemo, contains the following stories: - The Cat Burglar - Circumstantial Evidence - The Ghost of Downhill - The Poetical Policeman - Red Aces - The Four Just Men - The Shadow Man

Presents western stories by both legendary and contemporary authors of the genre, such as Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour, Loren Estleman, Marcia Muller, and Bill Pronzini.

Jack London was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer in the world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first writers to become a worldwide celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction. This selection specially chosen by the literary critic August Nemo, contains the following stories: The Law of Life, To Build a Fire, That Spot, All Gold Canyon, An Odyssey of the North, A Piece of Steak and Lost Face.

From his decision to leave school at fifteen to roam the world, to his recollections of life as a hobo on the Southern Pacific Railroad, as a cattle skinner in Texas, as a merchant seaman in Singapore and the West Indies, and as an itinerant bare-knuckled prizefighter across small-town America, here is Louis L'Amour's memoir of his lifelong love affair with learning—from books, from yondering, and from some remarkable men and women—that shaped him as a storyteller and as a man. Like classic L'Amour fiction, Education of a Wandering Man mixes authentic frontier drama--such as the author's desperate efforts to survive a sudden two-day trek across the blazing Mojave desert--with true-life characters like Shanghai waterfront toughs, desert prospectors, and cowboys whom Louis L'Amour met while traveling the globe. At last, in his own words, this is a story of a one-of-a-kind life lived to the fullest . . . a life that inspired the books that will forever enable us to relive our glorious frontier heritage.

The New York Times-bestselling Grand Master of suspense deftly displays the other side of his genius, with seven classic western tales of destiny and fatal decision . . . and trust as essential to survival as it is hard-earned. Trust was rare and precious in the wide-open towns that sprung up like weeds on America's frontier—with hustlers and hucksters arriving in droves by horse, coach, wagon, and rail, and gunmen working both sides of the law, all too eager to end a man's life with a well-placed bullet. In these classic tales that span more than five decades—including the first story he ever published, “The Trail of the Apache”—Elmore Leonard once again demonstrates the superb talent for language and gripping narrative that have made him one of the most acclaimed and influential writers of our time.

Compiled for the first time in book form, seven-time Spur Award-winning author Elmer Kelton's short story collection, Wild West. From rodeos to rustlers, from ranch life to the outlaw trail, Elmer Kelton’s take on the human condition shows us life in Texas as it was back then: simpler, but harder, with danger always present. Readers will meet several unforgettable characters, including a young veteran who overcomes his PTSD to fight a fire ravaging his town, a sheriff who continues to chase bandits despite having lost his job, and a frontier housewife who refuses to let her home be held hostage by dangerous criminals—even when all seems lost. Equally fascinating are the rancher and his wife who protect their adopted son when his abusive biological father returns unexpectedly, and the two women whose argument over a prospective lover leads to a no-holds-barred rodeo barrel race. As in all of Elmer Kelton’s work, readers will, once again, encounter the timeless strength of the human heart and the human spirit when everything else has gone awry. Filled with adventure and imbued with a love of the time, the people, and the place, these stories take us from the earliest days of the Wild West well into the twentieth century, each one embodying a passion for life that’s as wide as Texas sky. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.