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Westward Ho!

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I saw a page at abebooks on box sets, and was hoping for a set of A.B. Guthrie novels.  His Western sequence started with The Big Sky in 1947, perhaps my favorite Western novel.  Of course it was years ago that I read it and it may not make as big an impression on me now as it did then, but here is a copy in google books.  This particular volume has an introduction by Wallace Stegner.

Guthrie followed up with The Way West (1949) and These Thousand Hills (1956).  He picked up the thread again in the 70s with three more novels which I haven't read.  You can find first editions of these novels for as little as five bucks at abebooks.  I guess they had large printings.

Comments

  1. JAbelNovember 20, 2012 at 6:09 AM

    I only read The Big Sky some years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  2. TripplerNovember 20, 2012 at 7:00 AM

    Never read "Big Sky" but it's on my extended wish list. That list must now be 100s of pages long.

    My favorite Western novel was Jack Schaefer's "Shane". Watched the movie in a Brooklyn cinema around 1959. I loved it so much I can still hear and see the little boy at the end screaming SHANE!!!!

    At the moment, I just picked up again Frank G Robertson's "A Man Called Paladin" (1963) which was based on the old TV show. I keep picking it up and then leaving it for later (prolly cause of the book's very small print). Paladin was my favorite TV hero back in the day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JAbelNovember 20, 2012 at 8:20 AM

    I'm fond of the Ivan Doig novels about Montana.

    ReplyDelete
  4. JAbelNovember 20, 2012 at 8:22 AM

    If you want a real life look one Avrds turned me onto some years ago is"Tough Trip Through Paradise" by Andrew Garcia.Incredible book.

    ReplyDelete
  5. avrdsNovember 20, 2012 at 3:35 PM

    Or at least a _sort of_ real life look ... hard to tell with Garcia, but he was definitely an original. And he knows how to tell a great story.

    On Friday I heard a young woman from the Nez Perce give a talk on the 1877 war. She tried so hard to be "fair and balanced" when speaking of how the military shot down women and children she almost (literally) cried. I'm going to try to follow up with her and see what the tribe thinks of Garcia and his version.

    ReplyDelete
  6. avrdsNovember 20, 2012 at 3:36 PM

    I only vaguely remember reading The Big Sky, although Guthrie was another original.

    ReplyDelete
  7. TripplerNovember 21, 2012 at 6:34 AM

    There are literally tons of FREE Westerns on you tube ~ all public domain:

    https://www.youtube.com/user/wildwesttoys1


    And there are many other channels.

    ReplyDelete
  8. JAbelNovember 21, 2012 at 8:14 AM

    When I was up at lake tahoe last mont there were a couple of retro channels that had Daniel Boone,Branded,The Rebel,The Rifleman in addition to the usuals like Gunsmoke, Bonanza,The Big Valley,Wild Wild West etc.The Rebel is one I'd forgotten about.

    ReplyDelete
  9. James FergusonNovember 21, 2012 at 8:28 AM

    The Rifleman had a great intro,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOMPwZsuXhQ

    ReplyDelete

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