Western - Leisure Reading — Literature - Library Guides at University of Notre Dame

Western Fiction

A good beginning makes a good end.

--Louis L'Amour

Cowboy on a horse, 1887, John C. H. Grabill, Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons

Westerns

Books
eBooks

Books in the western genre are made up of stories that take place in the American Old West.

--The Book Genre Dictionary

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Publication Date: 1992
The tale of John Grady Cole, who at sixteen finds himself at the end of a long line of Texas ranchers, cut off from the only life he has ever imagined for himself. With two companions, he sets off for Mexico on a sometimes idyllic, sometimes comic journey to a place where dreams are paid for in blood.
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
Publication Date: 2005
Brokeback Mountain is the story of Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two cowboys who share a small cabin while working as herders and camp tenders during a summer spent on a range far above the tree line. They fall into a relationship that at first seems solely sexual-but then reveals itself to be something more. Both men marry and have families, but over the course of many years and frequent separations they find their relation- ship becomes the most important thing in both their lives, and they do anything they can to maintain it.
The Collected Stories of Max Brand by Max Brand
Publication Date: 1994
Max Brand's novels and stories have defined the West for thousands of readers attracted to his bright, vigorous prose. Between 1917 and 1944 he wrote prolifically, making Max Brand one of America's most popular writers. But Max Brand wasn't his real name, and his work extended well beyond boots and saddles. Born Frederick Schiller Faust, he realized his name would be a hindrance when World War I was raging. He took the name Max Brand and made it famous.
The Fruit of Stone by Mark Spragg
Publication Date: 2002
Mark Spragg’s first novel is the story of the lifelong friendship between two Wyoming ranchers, McEban and Bennett, and their love for the same woman—Gretchen Simpson, Bennett’s wife. When she leaves them both for a new life, the two men follow her on a journey across the American West, testing the limits of their friendship and love.
In a Far Country by Jack London
Publication Date: 1987
When a man journeys into a far country, he must be prepared to forget many of the things he has learned, and to acquire such customs as are inherent with existence in the new land; he must abandon the old ideals and the old gods, and oftentimes he must reverse the very codes by which his conduct has hitherto been shaped.
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Publication Date: 1985
A love story, an adventure, and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize— winning classic, Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Publication Date: 1994
An unlikely pair, George and Lennie, two migrant workers in California during the Great Depression, grasp for their American Dream. They hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. When they land jobs on a ranch in the Salinas Valley, the fulfillment of their dream seems to be within their grasp. But even George cannot guard Lennie from the provocations, nor predict the consequences of Lennie's unswerving obedience to the things George taught him.
The Riders of High Rock by Louis L'Amour
Publication Date: 1994
Hopalong rode into cattle country just east of the California line looking for his old friend Red Connors. He found Red holed up in a mountain cave with a bullet in his side and a story to tell. The ranchers around Tascotal had been losing their stock, and when Red caught the rustlers in the act, they hunted him down, shot him, and left him for dead. Jack Bolt, a savage, ruthless killer, has brought in a tough band of hardcases to run his operation. And now he's sent them out to take care of the one man who stands in his way- Hopalong Cassidy. But Bolt's about to learn the hard way that if you shoot down a man like Cassidy, you better make sure he never gets up again.
Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
Publication Date: 1998
In the remote border country of South Utah, a man is about to be whipped by the Mormons in order to pressure Jane Withersteen into marrying against her will. The punishment is halted by the arrival of the hero, Lassiter, a gunman in black leather, who routs the persecutors and then gradually recounts his own history of an endless search for a woman abducted long ago by the Mormons.
Selected Stories and Sketches by Bret Harte
Publication Date: 1995
In the 1870s Bret Harte was the most widely read and well-paid author in the United States. Stories such as The Luck of Roaring Camp--the tale of a Gold Rush community that thrilled readers upon its publication in 1868--virtually invented California as a subject for literature and exerted a profound influence on the development of the short story form in America.
Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
Publication Date: 1963
Adopting the structure and themes of the Arthurian legend, John Steinbeck created a “Camelot” on a shabby hillside above the town of Monterey, California, and peopled it with a colorful band of knights. At the center of the tale is Danny, whose house, like Arthur’s castle, becomes a gathering place for men looking for adventure, camaraderie, and a sense of belonging—men who fiercely resist the corrupting tide of honest toil and civil rectitude.
True Grit by Charles Portis
Publication Date: 1968
The story of Mattie Ross, who is just fourteen when the coward Tom Chaney shoots her father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 cash. Filled with an unwavering urge to avenge her father's blood, Mattie finds and, after some tenacious finagling, enlists one-eyed Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available U.S. Marshal, as her partner in pursuit, and they head off into Indian Territory after the killer.
The Virginian by Owen Wister
Publication Date: 1998
The narrator, fresh from the East, encounters in Wyoming cattle country a strange, seductive and often violent land where the handsome figure of the Virginian battles for supremacy with Trampas and other ne'er-do-wells. His courtship of the genteel Vermont schoolteacher, Molly Wood, is a humourously observed battle of the sexes, demonstrating that the 'customs of the country' must eventually prevail.
Warlock by Oakley M. Hall
Publication Date: 1996
Tombstone, Arizona, during the 1880's is, in ways, our national Camelot: a never-never land where American virtues are embodied in the Earps, and the opposite evils in the Clanton gang; where the confrontation at the OK Corral takes on some of the dry purity of the Arthurian joust.

Books in the western genre are made up of stories that take place in the American Old West.

--The Book Genre Dictionary

Another Kind of Eden by James Lee Burke
Publication Date: 2021
Aspiring novelist Aaron Holland Broussard has observed it from the open door of a boxcar, riding the rails for both inspiration and odd jobs. Jumping off in Denver, he finds work on a farm and meets Joanne McDuffy, an articulate and fierce college student and gifted painter. Their soul connection is immediate, but their romance is complicated by Joanne's involvement with a shady professor who is mixed up with a drug-addled cult. When a sinister businessman and his son who wield their influence through vicious cruelty set their sights on Aaron, drawing him into an investigation of grotesque murders, it is clear that this idyllic landscape harbors tremendous power--and evil.
Cabin Fever by B. M. Bower
Publication Date: 1918
American novelist and author of popular Western fiction, Bower was the first female writer to make a career out of this literary genre. Her sense of humor and the genuineness of her characters charm and captivate the readers even today.
Cry Macho by N. Richard Nash
Publication Date: 1975
Mike's best years are behind him. There was a time when he was the best rider in the circuit, but a divorce and years of hard living have worn his body down. After an accident, his career comes to an abrupt end, but his boss gives him one last job: he must cross the border into Mexico, kidnap his boss’s son, Rafo, from his boss’s ex-wife, to be used as leverage in their ongoing divorce.
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
Publication Date: 1826
The daughters of an American colonel become caught up in the conflict between the two nations contest for supremacy in North America, and embroiled in the war between the Native American allies of the two sides. One of the world's most widely-read American adventure stories.
Lost Face by Jack London
Publication Date: 2015
Lost Face is a collection of seven short stories by Jack London. It takes its name from the first short story in the book, about a European adventurer in the Yukon who outwits his Indian captors' plans to torture him. This collection includes London's best-known short story, To Build a Fire. It tells the story of a new traveler in the Klondike who ignores warnings about traveling alone and whose life depends on the ability to build a fire.
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
Publication Date: 1929
Young Alexandra Bergson's dying father leaves her in charge of the family and of the Nebraska lands they have struggled to farm. This is the story of her lifelong fight to survive and succeed despite harsh conditions and dangerous obstacles.