Great American Cowboy Stories: Lyons Press Classics

by Michael McCoy (Editor)

Roping a buffalo, running off cattle rustlers, sitting out a winter storm in a cave--adventures like these were all part of everyday life for the cowboy. They're depicted here in stories that have stood the test of time, by writers whose words are just as funny and wise today as they were one hundred years ago.

Covering all corners of the great Western expanse--from Montana to Mexico, California to the Mississippi--the stories in this collection represent not just the Anglo male perspective but also that of the blacks, Mexicans, and women who made their lives on the range. It features works by Owen Wister, Theodore Roosevelt, Frederic Remington, Isabella L. Bird, Nat Love, Bill Nye, Charlie Siringo, Zane Grey, Andy Adams, Mark Twain, E. Mulford, O. Henry (creator of the Cisco Kid), and many others, including some surprises by little-known authors.

296 pages, Paperback

Published August 23, 2019

Reviews

[William Ghosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some lovely selections here -- Zane Grey's "Cowboy Golf" is pure joy, and the decision to include non fiction pieces gives some interesting material. But the selection of actual cowboy stories is slight and uneven. Even within the parameters -- everything here is out of copyright -- the selection is parsimonious, ignoring obvious selections and including some rather dull ones. Still, there is some wonderful material.

[Chumlee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most story collections of a genre are short stories that represent the genre. In this book, it’s just random chapters with no context slapped together so you have now clue if a whole book was just spoiled or not

[Grace LeBlanc · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would've liked to have an introduction to each story. Some of them clearly reference other works and without the context they can be a little hard to follow.

[Ed Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last three stories are the best!

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a genre that I am normally very interested in, but I was starting to read a little before a visit to Texas (that is now postponed) and thought it would be fun to read some cowboy stories.

This book is compilation of excerpts from full-length books by various authors (with some authors making an appearance twice). They were all originally published between 1879 and 1922. I rated each story out of 5 and the average score was 3.3. There were two 5-star stories (both by Owen Wister) and I'll be adding those books to my list (The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains and Lin McLean).

There was a really nice variety of content in the stories. They all had to do with cowboys in some way, but each focused on different things. While I didn't love all of them, I feel like this selection gives a good feel for the genre and some of them were pretty entertaining and funny.