That the train would inspire the world’s first narrative film, Edwin S. Porter’s 1903 Western The Great Train Robbery, makes complete sense to us....
8 Classic Westerns
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Western Books & Movies
Route 66: Lost & Found
The famous Mother Road pathway lingers in our memories, and Russell A. Olsen highlights its charms in Route 66: Lost & Found (Voyageur Press,...
Cleaving an Unknown World
By 1869, Lewis & Clark, trappers, U.S. Army surveyors and pioneer emigrants had pretty much explored most of the continental United States, but...
The Great Plains Guide to Custer
When folks ask me about the goals I have as the U.S. Congress’s “Foremost Custer Living Historian,” I tell them that, in addition to reading the...
Little Big Man
The Western was fair game in 1970, when the movie Little Big Man was released. Those were cynical times, and people were polarized—politically,...
Train Keeps A’Rollin’
When Joe and Tony Gayton, the brothers responsible for creating Hell on Wheels, pitched their series to cable station AMC, a Western wasn’t...
Our Favorite Reads of 2011
True West editors weigh in on our favorite reads. BIOGRAPHIES THE KILLING OF CRAZY HORSEBy Thomas Powers (Knopf/Vintage)The shadowy warrior of...
MARY DORIA RUSSELL
Author of Doc, which Ron Howard will be filming for HBO. On Ron Howard’s HBO Project:Here’s a little Hollywood wisdom I’ve learned: it’s not a movie...
Luke Perry on Eastwood
Luke Perry has become a major star in a series of TV Westerns that feature Perry as John Goodnight, a 19th-century circuit judge. The first,...
Looking Ahead 2012
MOVIES & TV The Rifleman may be returning to the small screen with help from CBS and director Chris Columbus. This December, we’ll see how and...
JOHNNY D. BOGGS
Spur and Wrangler award-winning author of 40 books. His novel, Kill the Indian, will be out in June. The Best Western I Saw:Was undoubtedly...
EASTWOOD ON EASTWOOD
Michael Henry Wilson is the author of Eastwood on Eastwood, which shares his interviews with Clint about his directorial work, from 1971’s Play...