Top 5 Best Western Reads

[noharleyyet]

I’ve actually owned them all for a bit and finally started “Milagro” last night. Enjoying it so far!

Ancillary relevance...
"Nichols also has written non-fiction, including the trilogy If Mountains Die, The Last Beautiful Days of Autumn and On the Mesa. Nichols has lived in Taos, New Mexico for many years. He is the subject of a documentary The Milagro Man: The Irrepressible Multicultural Life and Literary Times of John Nichols, which premiered at the 2012 Albuquerque Film Festival."

^^^from wiki

 

[2rocky]

Louis L'amour defined the Western novel by volume if nothing else. His plot formula is timeless and predictable but satisfying. Kinda like microwave popcorn.

Larry Mc Murtry's Lonesome Dove is a singular work that weaves multiple character story lines together like a Navajo blanket. A lesson in Character Development.

For readable history nonfiction I like Irving Stone's Men to Match My Mountains The Opening of the West 1840-1900.

Centennial by Robert Mitchum is another good look at a place in the West that has developed over the years. Some say it is based on Greeley CO.

#5 to be determined at a later time....

 

[jlong17]

I’m surprised Blood and Thunder hasn’t been mentioned. It’s a great book about the adventures of Kit Carson and stories of American and Indian conflicts.
Another epic book is Undaunted Courage. How can a hunter not love the story of the most amazing adventure of all time - the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Both of these books brought to light just how weak we are these days. They inspired me to do hard things, take adventures, be a good man, and be a good friend. All these things are becoming rarer and rarer.

 

[hank4elk]

I’m surprised Blood and Thunder hasn’t been mentioned. It’s a great book about the adventures of Kit Carson and stories of American and Indian conflicts.
Another epic book is Undaunted Courage. How can a hunter not love the story of the most amazing adventure of all time - the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Both of these books brought to light just how weak we are these days. They inspired me to do hard things, take adventures, be a good man, and be a good friend. All these things are becoming rarer and rarer.

I was going to throw in blood & Thunder.

One that is heavy reading and non-fiction. Great River by Paul Horgan. Pulitzer work. The Rio Grande and North American history.

 

[44hunter45]

Fiction:
Angle of Repose
Lonesome Dove
Dalva
River Runs Through it

Tangential:
Grapes of Wrath
The Cheechakos

Non-Fiction:
Great Wyoming Bear Stories
Great Montana Bear Stories
Beyond the 100th Meridian
Dangerous River
Cadillac Desert
Desert Solitaire
A Tough Trip Through Paradise

Andrew Garcia Rocks! Read "A Tough Trip Through Paradise" first. The other bold fonts in no particular order.

As long as we are talking Steinbeck, I would add "Of Mice and Men". Steinbeck's intimate knowledge of Salinas and Monterey County makes this an authentic California book.
As opposed to something like Keruac's, "On The Road" which is really only about where to score pot and get laid in Post-War America and Mexico. Virtually all of Steinbeck's works are solidly "western" and rooted in actual history. My mother's family came west in the 1930's and were "Okie" migrant farmer workers. This was a label applied to anyone who fled the Dustbowl, regardless of where they actually came from. Because he so accurately portrays this life, Steinbeck is gold to me.

@neffa3 knows my opinion of Wallace Stegner (and the "Beat" writers, too) . I really liked "Beyond the 100th Meridian" though. I'm currently reading WWII history, but "Crossing to Safety" is on my list soon.

I would add any of T.R.'s "western" biographicals. He paints himself in the best light, no doubt, but his descriptions of landscapes, people, life, and animals make it worth reading.
There are attempts to cancel him as a racist, and that's fine, but he describes the West in the post Civil War era. (Andrew Garcia is more honest about himself.)

Cowboy Autobiography? "Lone Cowboy, My Life Story" By Will James. - If you find this treasure in good condition in a thrift store, buy it and ask questions later. Quality first editions are near $1000. My copy is barely held together by regular applications of duct tape.

Desert Solitaire almost has to be preceded or followed by "The Monkeywrench Gang." There have been attempts to cancel Abbey as well. The reasons usually given would make us have to cancel Harrison also.

One underrated modern western I read recently is, "Painted Horses" by Malcolm Brooks. It borders on being a romance novel in some places, but holds up in its plot to save lonely places from land grabbers. Its fiction, don't try to put the places described on a map. For the record, my dad hated it.

Future Reads:
"Crossing to Safety" by Wallace Stegner
"The Western Paradox" by Bernard DeVoto
"Confluence" by Zac Podmore
"Wilderness of Hope: Fly Fishing and Public Lands in the American West" by Quinn Grover
"A River Lost:The Life and Death of the Columbia" by Blaine Harden

 

[TheJason]

Dancing at the Rascal Fair - Doig
Desert Solitaire - Abbey
English Creek - Doig
Lonesome Dove - McMurtry
Really, I can’t think of a book by those three that I didn’t like - liked some more than others, but not a dud in the batch.

Ivan Doig is one of my favorite authors.

 

[Irrelevant]

Ivan Doig is one of my favorite authors.

Never read or even heard of him until you guys, so I just reserved one of his from the library.

 

[44hunter45]

I forgot "The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America" by Timothy Egan
Must read for every smoke whiner.

 

[2rocky]

Cowboy Autobiography? "Lone Cowboy, My Life Story" By Will James. - If you find this treasure in good condition in a thrift store, buy it and ask questions later. Quality first editions are near $1000. My copy is barely held together by regular applications of duct tape.

Ok I think Will James is a definitely in my top 5 for a truly Western first person fiction cowboy author. He edges out CM Russell since he wrote more than he drew. Also a contender for that "Cowboy spot" is Ben K. Green.

Check out the backstory on Will... You can translate the closed captioning into English

 

[Hem]

Again...James Welch...every one of them. More exact renditions from an Indigenous writer.
Osborne Russell- Journal of a Trapper.
Crow Killer by Thorp and Bunker.( JOHN Johnson was a bad ass MF)

 

[jlong17]

Again...James Welch...every one of them. More exact renditions from an Indigenous writer.
Osborne Russell- Journal of a Trapper.
Crow Killer by Thorp and Bunker.( JOHN Johnson was a bad ass MF)

Journal of a Trapper was a really good read. I forgot about that one

 

[jrabq]

Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher

An interesting version of the John/Jerimiah Johnston/Johnson myth.

 

[BackofBeyond]

Never read or even heard of him until you guys, so I just reserved one of his from the library.

I think you’ll like him. He tells a good story.

 

[Sheltowee]

As long as we are talking Steinbeck, I would add "Of Mice and Men". Steinbeck's intimate knowledge of Salinas and Monterey County makes this an authentic California book.
As opposed to something like Kerouac's, "On The Road" which is really only about where to score pot and get laid in Post-War America and Mexico. Virtually all of Steinbeck's works are solidly "western" and rooted in actual history. My mother's family came west in the 1930's and were "Okie" migrant farmer workers. This was a label applied to anyone who fled the Dustbowl, regardless of where they actually came from. Because he so accurately portrays this life, Steinbeck is gold to me.

On the Road is fine when you're 15 and angsty, but The Dharma Bums' description of hiking the Matterhorn in Yosemite is fantastic.

Not exactly western but Hemingway's The Big Two-Hearted River is my favorite fishing work-- you can feel the cold water running between your toes as you read his words.

 

[huntnpack]

My alternative/out of the box western lit pick would be either, or both, Walking It Off, and The Grizzly Years by Doug Peacock. The pensive, lonely, sometimes self abusive pursuit of wilderness struck a chord, and made me look at how PTS has shaped or colored many of my own outdoor experiences. People can criticize his perspectives on wildlife management and environmental policy, but it's tough to deny that dude has seen and done some shit.

And yes, if you want to support a self aggrandizing poacher, read Indian Creek Chronicles.

 

[Hem]

Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher

An interesting version of the John/Jerimiah Johnston/Johnson myth.

Myth?
Dudes for real...buried in L.A. of all places.

 

[Hem]

My alternative/out of the box western lit pick would be either or both Walking It Off, and The Grizzly Years by Doug Peacock. The pensive, lonely, sometimes self abusive pursuit of wilderness struck a chord, and made me look at how PTS has shaped or colored many of my own outdoor experiences. People can criticize his perspectives on wildlife management adn environmental policy, but it's tough to deny that dude has seen and done some shit.

And yes, if you want to support a self aggrandizing poacher read Indian Creek Chronicles.

Meant to add Peacock in my last brief list.
Spaced it.
Grizzly Years great read.
Doug Peacock a good man.
Thanks for recognizing him.

 

[jrabq]

Myth?
Dudes for real...buried in L.A. of all places.

There is a real person, yes, some of the lore is likely mythological.

 

[BackofBeyond]

Meant to add Peacock in my last brief list.
Spaced it.
Grizzly Years great read.
Doug Peacock a good man.
Thanks for recognizing him.

Also, the legend has it, model for Heyduke in Monkeywrench Gang and Heyduke Lives

 

[Hem]

There is a real person, yes, some of the lore is likely mythological.

All written history is subjective. Oral history certainly can stray.
My opinion, it's likely John Johnston was more than less of what we have to go by.