Stories of the Old West: Tales of the Mining Camp, Cavalry Troop, and Cattle Ranch

by John Seelye

Overview

This collection of stories portrays an Old West that is both fact and fiction. The fifty narratives are written by some of America’s finest writers, including Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Jack London, Mary Austin, Ambrose Bierce, Owen Wister, Frederic Remington, Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, O. Henry, and Stewart Edward White.

The reader will delight in comic tales about California charlatans, prostitutes with hearts of gold, tough, taciturn, and honorable cowboys, and heroic cavalrymen. There are razor-sharp stories of settlers struggling to survive in an unforgiving and unknown land and accounts with a rare understanding of the cultures of the American Indian.

" ’Of Course you don’t know Tom Merwin,’ said Longley, almost genially. ’Yes, I know about that loan. It hasn’t any security except Tom Merwin’s word. Somehow, I’ve always found that when a man’s word is good, it’s the best security there is.’"-O. Henry, "A Call Loan"

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806132839
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	10/15/2000
Edition description:	Univ of Oklahoma PR ed.
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction

Bret Harte
from CONDENSED NOVELS: Muck-a-Muck
from SPANISH AND AMERICAN LEGENDS: The Right Eye of the Commander
from THE LUCK OF ROARING CAMP AND OTHER STORIES: The Luck of Roaring Camp, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, Tennessee's Partner, Brown of Calaveras

Mark Twain
from SKETCHES OLD AND NEW: The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
from ROUGHING IT: Jim Blaine and His Grandfather's Ram, Scotty Briggs and the Parson
from A TRAMP ABROAD: What Stumped the Bluejays (Jim Baker's Bluejay Yarn)
from THE $30,000 REQUEST AND OTHER STORIES: The California's Tale

Ambrose Bierce
from IN THE MIDST OF LIFE (TALES OF SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS): A Holy Terror
from CAN SUCH THINGS BE?: The Secret of Macarger's Gulch, The Night-Doings at "Deadman's," The Stranger

Owen Wister
from RED MAN AND WHITE: Specimen Jones, The Serenade at Siskiyou, The Second Missouri Compromise
from HANK'S WOMAN: Sharon's Choice

Frederic Remington
from CROOKED TRAILS: A Sergeant of the Orphan Troop
from SUN-DOWN LEFLARE: Sun-down Leflare's Warm Spot, Sun-Down's Higher Self
from MEN WITH THE BARK ON: When a Document is Official
uncollected: Billy's Tearless Woe

Stephen Crane
from THE OPEN BOAT AND OTHER TALES OF ADVENTURE: A Man and Some Others, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky
from THE MONSTER: Twelve O'Clock, Moonlight on the Snow

Jack London
from MOON-FACE AND OTHER STORIES: All Gold Canyon

Frank Norris
from A DEAL IN WHEAT AND OTHER STORIES: The Passing of Cock-eye Blacklock, Two Hearts that Beat as One

Stewart Edward White
from BLAZED TRAIL STORIES AND OTHER STORIES OF THE WILDLIFE: The Girl Who Got Rattled, The Prospector
from ARIZONA NIGHTS: The Ole Virginia, A Corner in Horses, The Two-Gun Man

O. Henry
from HEART OF THE WEST: The Ransom of Mack, A Call Loan, The Princess and the Puma
from ROADS OF DESTINY: The Passing of Black Eagle, A Departmental Case
from SIXES AND SEVENS: The Last of the Troubadours

Mary Austin
from LOST BORDERS: The Land, A Case of Conscience, The Ploughed Lands, The Return of Mr. Wills, The Fakir, The Readjustment, The House of Offence, The Walking Woman