 |
| Buffalo Bill "Under the Lime Light" plate in Last of the Great Scouts |
Members rounded up Westerns for the May 2023 meeting. Collectors presented some of their favorite
stories of the American frontier and California Gold Rush eras. Classics such as My Antonia, epics
such as Lonesome Dove, and historical fiction such as Doc covered
a variety of "Old West" and "Wild West" themes such as
rugged individualism, manifest destiny, freedom, and justice. In addition to fiction, members also shared
nonfiction works from the American West with biographies and autobiographies of
such legendary names as William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, James
Beckwourth, and the Donner Party.
Fiction
My Antonia
Cather, Willa S. My
Antonia. New York: First Editions
Library / Collectors Reprints Inc., 1977.
Facsimile of the Houghton Mifflin Company's 1918 first edition, with
slipcase. Considered the author's finest
work, My Antonia has been praised for bringing the American West to life
and making it personally interesting. The
story was adapted into a made-for-television movie in 1995.
Little Big Man
Berger, Thomas. Little
Big Man. New York: Dial Press, 1964. This lengthy picaresque tale is considered a
satire or parody of western novels. The
book was adapted into a successful film in 1970, starring Dustin Hoffman and
Faye Dunaway. In 2014, the film was
deemed "culturally and historically significant" by the Library of
Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Blood Meridian
McCarthy, Cormac. Blood
Meridian, Or the Evening Redness in the West. New York: Random House Publishing, 2010. 25th anniversary edition. First published in 1985, this unconventional
western is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest American novels
ever published in any genre. The story
is noted for its extreme violence and its deconstruction of America’s Manifest
Destiny.
 |
| Lonesome Dove |
McMurtry, Larry. Lonesome Dove. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985. Winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and considered one of the greatest westerns ever written. The novel was adapted into an award-winning television miniseries in 1989, starring Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, and Diane Lane.
The Eagle Catcher
Coel, Margaret. The
Eagle Catcher. Niwot, CO: The
University Press of Colorado, 1995. The
Eagle Catcher is the first novel in a series of 20 books published from
1995 to 2016 featuring a crime-solving duo of a Jesuit priest and an Arapaho
lawyer. The stories are set in the Wind
River Reservation in Wyoming.
Doc
Russell, Mary Doria.
Doc. New York: Random
House, 2011. This work of historical
fiction combines a murder-mystery story with a realistic portrait of John Henry
"Doc" Holliday, the Georgia dentist who became an infamous Western
gambler and gunman. Doc was the
American Library Association's 2011 Top Pick in Historical Fiction.
Epitaph
Russell, Mary Doria.
Epitaph. New York:
HarperCollins/Ecco, 2015. A sequel
to Doc, Epitaph follows Holliday to Tombstone, Arizona, with the
Earp brothers, and explores the mythology of the infamous Gunfight at the O.K.
Corral. Epitaph was recognized by
True West Magazine as the Best Historical Western of 2015.
Nonfiction
The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth
Bonner, T. D. The
Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, Mountaineer, Scout, and Pioneer,
and Chief of the Crow Nation of Indians.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1856. Bonner's biography follows a biracial slave,
freed by his master and father, who moves to the American West during the Gold
Rush years. Beckwourth became a fur
trader and lived among the Crow Nation for many years. He discovered a pass through the Sierra Nevada
mountains now named after him. Beckwourth
narrated his stories to Thomas D. Bonner, an itinerant justice of the peace and
newspaperman, who compiled them into this publication.
 |
| Across the Plains in Forty-nine |
Shaw, Ruben Cole. Across
the Plains in Forty-nine. Chicago:
The Lakeside Press / R. Donnelley & Sons Co., 1948. Originally published in 1896, Across the
Plains in Forty-nine details the travels of the members of the Mt.
Washington Mining Company from Boston to San Franciso in 1849. Shaw, a member of the company, recounts the
difficult journey, fraught with encounters with Native Americans, cholera, and
their various modes of transportation, including rail, river, and pack mules.
 |
| Last of the Great Scouts |
Wetmore, Helen Cody.
Last of the Great Scouts: The Life Story of Col. William F. Cody
"Buffalo Bill" as Told by His Sister. Chicago: The Duluth Press Publishing Company,
1899. Wetmore recounts the legend of
her brother, "Buffalo Bill" Cody, the Wild West showman. As Cody's sister, she also offers
affectionate anecdotes of her brother's more modest experiences, such as being
a land speculator, hotel keeper, and justice of the peace. This copy is inscribed by William F. Cody on
the half title page.
 |
| The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate |
Houghton, Eliza P. Donner. The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1911. Nearly 65 years after the tragic attempted journey from Illinois to California in 1846, Houghton recounts her family's experience of becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range during the winter months. Already short on provisions and draft animals, the group from the wagon train which were stranded resorted to cannibalism to survive the harsh winter, though Houghton does not mention cannibalism in her memoir.
The Worst Hard Time
Egan, Tim. The
Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust
Bowl. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 2006. Egan's disaster tale
focuses on the problems of the farmers and their families who lived through the
1930s Dust Bowl. He dissects the tragedy
and attributes it to the reckless agricultural misuse of the land. The Worst Hard Time won the 2006
National Book Award for Nonfiction.
