How the West Was Written

This book is an examination of early western fiction, most of it written contemporaneously with the settlement of the American west. It involves the birth of the classic ranch western, but much more: early novelists of the west examined all the facets of settlement, from mining to railroads, as well as the hardships endured by settlers, and their unique social arrangements.

There were a surprising number of woman authors, such as Mary Halleck Foote and Helen Hunt Jackson, unlike contemporary western fiction which is largely a male enterprise.

Ron Scheer, a retired California academic, provides an in-depth look at over sixty of these titles, ranging from 1880 to 1915, which includes much of the work of Owen Wister, and the early Zane Grey.

I found myself constantly surprised, as did the author, by the diversity and depth of early western fiction, and also by the extent that the field has reduced to the male-oriented gunman stories that we see today.

I found the book a fascinating journey into the origins of the western story, with rock-solid and penetrating reviews of the diverse stories that seemed to erupt from American authors even as the frontier faded away early in the twentieth century. This is not only a deeply rewarding book, but an authoritative and pioneering look at the original western story.

This book belongs on the shelf of everyone interested in western literature, but also any library collection dealing with American literature.