In 1961 Bison Books blazed a paperback trail to some of the best stories about Nebraska and the Great Plains. Mari Sandoz’s Old Jules led a prairie...
The Golden West: Fifty Years of Bison Books
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Articles
West of Here
West of Here, by Jonathan Evison, is a five-generation saga that begins with the arrival of 1890s idea man Ethan Thornburgh at the fishing village...
Doc
Fiction requires a suspension of disbelief, and history buffs will have to do a lot of suspending with Mary Doria Russell’s Doc. What is this need...
Child of the Fighting Tenth
If one area of Western Americana comes up short, it is memoirs of “Army brats” in the Old West. Forrestine C. Hooker’s Child of the Fighting Tenth...
David Crockett: The Lion of the West
Davy Crockett became one of America’s first celebrities, as Michael Wallis impressively demonstrates in David Crockett: The Lion of the West. With a...
Bloody Bill Longley
Rick Miller’s Bloody Bill Longley peels away the folklore encasing a once-notorious Texas outlaw. More cowardly braggart than badman, Longley...
What do Western novelists mean by “light a shuck?”
What do Western novelists mean by “light a shuck?” Michael J. Graves Belen, New Mexico The phrase means to depart in haste for another location,...
Could a Western gunfighter really shoot accurately without using the sight on the revolver?
Could a Western gunfighter really shoot accurately without using the sight on the revolver? John McFarland Jacksonville, Florida Pistol shooters,...
What does “hook and a draw” mean in the Johnny Yuma TV theme song?
What does “hook and a draw” mean in the Johnny Yuma TV theme song? Jim & Jan Patton Anthem, Arizona I first sang that Johnny Cash song at...
Captain John R. Hughes: Lone Star Ranger
The Texas Rangers have more to offer than just Jack Hays. A ranger who continued his tradition in the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries was John...
What was the “Dodge City Gang?”
In his book The Gunfighters, Dale T. Schoenberger states that Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday and Luke Short were known as the “Dodge City...
Kit Carson: The Life of an American Border Man
Two schools of thought exist on mountain man Kit Carson. He was either one of the great scout/explorers in American history, or he tried to wipe out...