From Dodge City to the O.K. Corral, this book is a roundup of the liveliest, most original stories of the American frontier.

John Jakes, #1 New York Times bestselling author of such acclaimed historical novels as North and South and The Kent Family Chronicles compiled in one volume a century's worth of his favorite American Western fiction. To illustrate the evolution of the genre, Jakes has included such legendary authors as Owen Wister, Louis L'Amour, and Zane Grey along side their more contemporary peers such as Loren Estleman and Elmer Kelton. While the stories have changed over the years, certain timeless themes of Western fiction remain constant. At the heart of the stories are ideas that have become synonymous with the American dream--the frontier spirit, individual freedoms, and man's relationship with the land. A Century of Great Western Stories is essentially a retrospective of western writing over the past century, but Jakes also sets out to give readers a glimpse of what the future might hold for western fiction. While trends in publishing might not always be promising, the current crop of contemporary Western authors show that the old west will always have a place in the world of fiction. Like the American dream which it celebrates, Western fiction will persevere. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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.

Called the King of the Pulps, Frederick Schiller Faust, aka Max Brand, wrote nearly 400 Westerns from The Untamed to Destry Rides Again--a total of more than 220 books in this genre. Yet Max Brand also created Dr. Kildare (of books, films, and television) and wrote under twenty-one pseudonyms, in another dozen genres. This book removes the mask, with deeply personal memoirs from family, friends and fellow writers, taking us through his orphaned boyhood on the brutal ranches of California, his frustrating decades in Italy, as both a classical poet and a fast-action pulpist, to his heroic death as a war correspondent on the World War II battlefields. Faust's life story is augmented by a complete bibliography of his work--over a thousand books, stories, and films--plus the first listing of works about Faust.

This volume of Contemporary Authors(R) New Revision Series brings you up-to-date information on approximately 250 writers. Editors have scoured dozens of leading journals, magazines, newspapers and online sources in search of the latest news and criticism. Writers appearing in this volume include: Gail Anderson-Dargatz Valerie Martin Isidore Okpewho Philip Roth

 In American Westerns, the main characters are most often gunfighters, lawmen, ranchers and dancehall girls. Civil professionals such as doctors, engineers and journalists have been given far less representation, usually appearing as background characters in most films and fiction. In Westerns about the 1910 Mexican Revolution, however, civil professionals also feature prominently in the narrative, often as members of the intelligentsia--an important force in Mexican politics. This book compares the roles of civil professionals in most American Westerns to those in films on the 1910 Mexican Revolution. Included are studies on the Santiago Toole novels by Richard Wheeler, Strange Lady in Town with Greer Garson and La sombra del Caudillo by Martin Luis Guzman.