THE VIRGINIAN: A HORSEMAN OF THE PLAINS
Owen Wister. Macmillan, 1902.
The Virginian, foreman on a local ranch, and Steve, his best fiend, become rivals for the affections of the newly arrived schoolmarm. Steve eventually falls in with a band of cattle rustlers and as foreman, The Virginian must give the order to hang his friend.

RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE
Zane Grey. 1912.
In the Utah frontier, the Mormon church seeks control of Jane Withersteen's rich lands by forcing her to marry Elder Tull. She and her foreman are rescued by Lassiter, who has been on an endless search for his sister, abducted long ago by the Mormons. Jane hires him as a ranch hand with the stipulation that he renounce violence, but it is a promise he cannot keep.

CIMARRON
Edna Ferber. Doubleday, 1930.
The marriage of Sabra and Yancey Cravat is the backdrop of this novel following Oklahoma as it moves from territory to statehood.

TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE
B. Traven. 1935.
Two down-and-out Americans in Mexico meet a grizzled old prospector who piques their interest with stories of his gold-hunting experiences. Pooling their resources they strike off into the mountains in search of gold.

THE OX-BOW INCIDENT
Walter Van Tilburg Clark. Random, 1940.
A Nevada town is torn by senseless violence that culminates in the lynching of three men accused of murder and cattle rustling.

SHANE
Jack Schaefer. Houghton, 1949.
A former gunfighter comes to the aid of home-steading farmers whose lives are threatened by ranchers who want them off their land.

HONDO
Louis L'Amour. 1952.
In 1880s Arizona, Army scout Hondo Lane discovers a woman and her son living on their farm in the midst of warring Apaches, and he becomes their protector.

THE SEARCHERS
Alan Le May. Harper, 1954.
Ethan Edwards returns from the Civil War to find that Comanches have killed his brother and his brother's wife and have taken their daughter's captive. Thus begins an obsessive search that lasts for years. By the same author: The Unforgiven (1957)

THE WAY WEST
A. B. Guthrie. Houghton, 1949.
Pulitzer Prize-winning novel following a wagon train from Missouri to the Oregon Trail. Sequel to: The Big Sky (1947); followed by Fair Land, Fair Land (1982).

LITTLE BIG MAN
Thomas Berger. Delacorte Press/S. Lawrence, [1979] c1964.
The only survivor of Custer's Last Stand, now 111 years old, reminisces about his adventurous life in the old west. Followed by Return of Little Big Man (1999).

TRUE GRIT
Charles Portis. S&S, 1968.
A young woman tracking the killer of her father enlists the aid of a Texas Ranger and a grizzled U. S. Marshall.

CONAGHER
Louis L'Amour. Bantam, 1983, 1969.
Conagher is hired to guard cattle on a nearby ranch and discovers his fellow ranch-hands are in league with a gang of rustlers.

THE SHOOTIST
Glendon Swarthout. Doubleday, 1975.
A dying gunfighter hopes to die in peace but his presence in town brings the arrival of a U.S. Marshall bent on a showdown.

THE SHADOW RIDERS
Louis L'Amour. Bantam Books, 1982.
Dal and Mac Traven, brothers who fought on opposite sides of the Civil War, return home to Texas to discover that their sisters and Dal's sweetheart, have been kidnapped by Rebel guerrillas who refuse to accept the defeat of the Confederacy.

LONESOME DOVE
Larry McMurty. S&S, 1985.
The story about two former Texas rangers who decide to move cattle from the south to Montana. Followed by: The Streets of Laredo (1993).

DANCES WITH WOLVES
Michael Blake. Fawcett, 1988.
Rewarded for his heroism in the Civil War, Lt. John Dunbar wants to see the American frontier before it is gone. He is assigned to an abandoned fort, with a Sioux tribe as his only neighbor. They overcome the language barrier and mutual fear and distrust to become friends, but his knowledge of what fate awaits them forces him to make a crucial decision. Followed by: The Holy Road (2001).

Short Stories

NO, BUT I SAW THE MOVIE: THE BEST SHORT STORIES EVER MADE INTO FILM,
ed. by David Wheeler. Penguin, 1989, includes:

"Bad Day at Black Rock" by Howard Beslin
"The Tin Star" by John M. Cunningham (became High Noon)
"Stage Coach" by Ernest Haycox

BEST OF THE WEST: STORIES THAT INSPIRED CLASSIC WESTERN FILMS
ed. by Bill Pronzini and Martin H. Greenberg. NAL, 1988, 1986, includes:

"The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" by Stephen Crane
"The Tin Star" by John M. Cunningham
"Three-ten to Yuma" by Elmore Leonard
"Jeremy Rodock" by Jack Schaefer
"The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence" by Dorothy M. Johnson
"The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by Bret Harte
"The Caballero's Way" by O. Henry
"Mission With No Record" by James Warner Bellah
"Town Tamer" by Frank Gruber