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The Log of a Cowboy: A Narrative of the Old Trail Days
A classic fictional chronicle of life on the open trail, THE LOG OF A COWBOY has long been considered the best and most reliable account of real cowboy life ever written.
In the years following the Civil War, sixteen-year-old Andy Adams left his home in the San Antonio Valley and took to the range. Here he charts his first journey as a bona fide cowboy, from south Texas to...more
In the years following the Civil War, sixteen-year-old Andy Adams left his home in the San Antonio Valley and took to the range. Here he charts his first journey as a bona fide cowboy, from south Texas to...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
November 20th 2000
by Mariner Books
(first published 1903)
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Andy Adams was a prolific writer, and thanks to the University of Nebraska Press, some of this former cowboy's output is still in print. This true-to-life story of an 1882 cattle drive is his best known, and its retelling 100 years later in Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" is evidence of its importance among early works of Western fiction.
Here the protagonist is a young cowboy much like the author, who trailed beef from Texas to Montana at a time just after the buffalo herds were being extinguis...more
Here the protagonist is a young cowboy much like the author, who trailed beef from Texas to Montana at a time just after the buffalo herds were being extinguis...more
Really probably at least 3 1/2 stars for being fascinating without being mind-blowing or life-changing ;)
This was a great read! I never would have thought! I mean, I like a good Western, but I don't think this really qualifies in the "Western" genre except that it concerns cows and cowboys and sometimes guns. Really its exactly what it says it is, a "Log"--a diary of sorts of one cowboy's trail drive from the Gulf of Mexico to Montana. Over 2400 miles, 3500 cows, took just over 5 months. It has...more
This was a great read! I never would have thought! I mean, I like a good Western, but I don't think this really qualifies in the "Western" genre except that it concerns cows and cowboys and sometimes guns. Really its exactly what it says it is, a "Log"--a diary of sorts of one cowboy's trail drive from the Gulf of Mexico to Montana. Over 2400 miles, 3500 cows, took just over 5 months. It has...more
This book was great. Its less about being a cowboy specifically than it is about a broader unique way of life--leaving home far behind you and striking out on a journey with a group of people. Loggers, whalers, Navy sailors, oil derrick operators. There are few occupations that isolate you to face adversity with a group of relative strangers bound only by a common skill and a will to get paid. I've experienced it and this combined with appealing characters, an ever present sense of adventure, an...more
"The Log of a Cowboy", Andy Adams. 1905. The American Western is a genre that has been played out, diluted and distorted by hundreds of inexpensive films and cheap dime novels. It is a unique experience to read a basically unmolested, authentic, first hand account of an American cowboy of the 1880's. Andy Adams's book is based on his experiences working cattle for two season from north of the Rio Grande up though eastern Montana. Adams affectionately names his black gelding "Nigger Boy". As anyo...more
Log of a Cowboy is one of those books that people keep mistaking for non-fiction. It's not non-fiction; it's a novel. But the mistake is understandable. For one thing, it reads like a memoir. For another, the author did in fact go on several trail drives during the period he's discussing, and wow does he know his stuff about horses, cattle drives, and the the people who worked with both--this makes it one of the few novels that also works well for research.
After a brief biographical start about...more
After a brief biographical start about...more
Andy Adams (1903, 1981). The Log of a Cowboy: A Narrative of the Old Trail Days. Time-Life Books Inc.[return]Set in the late 1800s, Adam's tale is often listed as the best account of cowboy life ever written. The author condensed a dozen year's work experience in the saddle into this book about a five-month cattle drive - - delivery of three thousand head from the mouth of the Rio Grande river (near Brownsville) in southwest Texas to government buyers at the Blackfoot Indian Agency in northwest...more
An excellent book which I read from Project Guttenburg. I like this author's narrative style. It offers a more fully developed view of cowboy life than we get from the TV or moveis. Worth the time to read, particularly if you are a fan of the Old West. There were a few spelling typos from the process of putting the book into P.G..
I think that this is an excellent look into what it was like to be a cowboy in the 1800s in the west. You ride along with the cowboys as they head off stampedes, cattle rustlers, town brawls, and dangerous river crossings. You can visualize the sounds and smells as this cowboy tells of the adventure. It is written by a white man of the period and you'll see areas that will make you uncomfortable as when he names his black horse, treatment of an Indian woman, and his description of cornering and...more
If you find normal Westerns too cliche, but want to know what it really was like, this is the book. I learned something on nearly every page, and it was an entertaining read.
A terrific resource for anyone who wants to lean about (or write about) the Old West cattle drives. I found it invaluable while working on my upcoming book.
He wants to set the record straight of what it really was like to move a herd of cattle from Texas north.
Sep 29, 2008
Joel
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
secret wanna-be cowboys.
Shelves:
american-west-history
I read this back in the day, soon after my life on horseback ended and the pains of leaving that life were fresh in my mind. It was a fabulous book, especially if you want the romantic part of being amongst thousands of wild cattle on completely open range for weeks and months on end. This story, autobiography, outlines the lives cowboys, real cowboys, lived. If you really begin to actually dissect what the author is saying, the romanticism fades and a harsh reality of life in the Old West is di...more
note to historians who keep footnoting this: IT IS FICTIONAL.
I really liked the narrative style, and it held my interest and I learned a lot of things. Very good Western style book, and would recommend it to anyone.
Terribly slow and boring. Don't waste your time
Entertaining. Good writing with a raw elegance.
I enjoyed this book. I found it fascinating and interesting. I loved learning how different things were without our modern technology. I was sad when the book ended, I wanted it to continue so that I could learn what a train ride was like and how the reunion with their families went. The version I read was free for my Nook. The formatting and copying were poor quality but I was still able to understand most of it. I would have enjoyed it more if I had read a copy with better formatting and editi...more
Andy Adams was a cowboy for 12 years. In 1903, flat broke and annoyed by the plethora of ridiculous books that purported to depict the true-life adventures of cowboys, he decided to try his own hand at writing a novel. The result is a beautifully written book, filled with fascinating detail of everyday life on the trail in 1882, as a team of 12 cowhands, 1 cook, 1 horse wrangler and a foreman drive 3100 cattle from Brownsville, Texas to the Blackfoot Indian Reservation in Montana.
This was written more than 100 years ago, and Larry McMurtry obviously used it as a model for Lonesome Dove. The cowboys take the same exact path from South Texas to Montana, and go through the same town. It's not on the level of a Lonesome Dove, mind you, but it is interesting reading for any fan of McMurtry's series..... I'd give it two stars for writing, but I ended up giving it four because I'm a fan of Gus and Call, and I enjoyed following the trail again.
I read this mainly for little bits of language I could steal for poetry--and it was full of gems!
Other than that, I don't really recommend the book, unless you're interested in the cowboy life; but it's fiction, and there are better nonfiction works in that regard. Bottom line: good, quick-reading story without much else going for it.
Other than that, I don't really recommend the book, unless you're interested in the cowboy life; but it's fiction, and there are better nonfiction works in that regard. Bottom line: good, quick-reading story without much else going for it.
Perfect for what it is. A first-hand account of life on the cattle trail.
A valuable insight into the real life of a cowhand on a a long cattle drive. A few too many river crossing descriptions for my taste and a flat ending, but, on the whole, an interesting read.
Excellent and the most informative book on what an actual cattle drive would be like that I am aware of and have ever read. Enjoyed it thoroughly.
Andy Adams was a Texas cowboys during the late 1800s. He tells of life on cattle ranches and trail drives.
Interesting book on the history of the cattle drives of the early west.
May 30, 2008
Lee
added it
Great cowboy history of post civil war cattle drives.
Jun 19, 2013
Jg Gouthro
is currently reading it
Jun 16, 2013
Dailycheapreads
is currently reading it
Jun 16, 2013
Tara
marked it as to-read
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Andy Adams (1859–1935) was born to pioneer parents in Indiana, worked in Texas for ten years driving cattle, and settled in Colorado Springs, where he began writing his "real" stories of cowboys in the West.
While still in his teens, Adams ran away from home. He eventually made his way to Texas, where he found work as a cowboy. From 1882 to 1893, Adams witnessed firsthand the golden era of the Texa...more
More about Andy Adams...
While still in his teens, Adams ran away from home. He eventually made his way to Texas, where he found work as a cowboy. From 1882 to 1893, Adams witnessed firsthand the golden era of the Texa...more
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