Lost Trails

by Martin H. Greenberg (Editor), Russell Davis (Editor), Louis L'Amour

They are the stuff of legend, thundering out of the harsh landscapes and stunning vistas of the American West, vividly lodged in our collective imaginations. From Buffalo Bill to Billy the Kid, from Cochise to Jesse James, these names and so many others screamed across newspaper and dime store magazine headlines while the Wild West was won.
Lost Trails features inventive, hard-riding, action-packed stories by America's best Western writers. Louis L'Amour, Elmer Kelton, William W. Johnstone, Loren Estleman, Johnny Boggs, Don Coldsmith, and many more, share tales of the legends born out of the wild frontier. So sit a spell and listen to a good ol' yarn about Mark Twain's meeting with Buffalo Bill, a man who shoed horses for Jesse James, or a little known nugget about Cochise by the legendary Louis L'Amour.  .  .and for a time, you can find yourself riding those Lost Trails with the real people that make the legends of the West come alive today.

Genres: Westerns, Short Stories

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 2007

About the author

Martin Harry Greenberg was an American academic and speculative fiction anthologist. In all, he compiled 1,298 anthologies and commissioned over 8,200 original short stories. He founded Tekno Books, a packager of more than 2000 published books. In addition, he was a co-founder of the Sci-Fi Channel.

For the 1950s anthologist and publisher of Gnome Press, see Martin Greenberg.

Reviews

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not all stories were great, but all were good.
The ones by Louis L'Amour and Elmer Kelton were GREAT, 5 stars.

[Monica Willyard Moen · Rating 4 out of 5]

And excellent and well balanced anthology of short western stories.

[Jesse Deleon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection!

I really enjoyed reading this book and look forward to finding more to read from these for me new authors. A fan!

[Gary M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Traditional western storytelling is evident in each of these stories. It took me awhile to complete this book as I would finish a story and then leave the book by the bedside table and pick it up whenever I was in need of a good western story. There are some big name western authors here with many of them picking actual historical figures from the Old West in order to anchor their stories - there is action galore but also a lot of depth and any book that reprints the Lamour classic, A Gift Of Cochise is top knotch - this particular story was first published in Colliers Magazine in 1952 and was the basis for the John Wayne movie, Hondo - bit of trivia Hondo was one of the few westerns ever made in 3D. Another standout is The Ones He Never Mentioned by Jeff Mariotte which explores the dark heart of John Wesley Hardin.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute idea for an anthology that got real old real fast. How many stories was Buffalo Bill in? One too many. It's nice that most of the stories here were new, but still the best one wound up being the only reprint -- Louis L'Amour's "The Gift of Cochise." You need to know your history of the American West in order to figure out who the historical figures are in each of the stories -- or you'll wind up like me, frantically Googling after each story. And I thought "John Wesley Harding" was just a cool title for a Bob Dylan album.