Westerns Anyone?

Can anyone suggest great historical fiction about the American West......

I have read and enjoyed...
Sacajawea by Waldo
Panther in the Sky by Thom
the Wilderness series by Donati

I have heard the following are good...
One Thousand White Women by Fergus
Beneath a Dakota Cross by Bly

I would love any comments on these or other great suggestions!

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry is by far and away my favorite, that's desert-island favorite, historical Western ever. It was just phenomenal! I also liked McMurtry's Anything for Billy and Buffalo Girls, and mostly enjoyed the prequel and sequels of Lonesome Dove and his Berrybender series.

Hi, KC ~ It appears there aren't a lot of lovers of novels of the American West around. :)

I thought of a few more you might like, although they are not new: Massacre at Fall Creek by Jessamyn West, which was okay, and Dee Brown's Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, which is non-fiction but really good, and Creek Mary's Blood, which is a novel and also good.

(edited to add smiley face)

Have you checked out the "Deadwood" thread on this group for more recommendations?

Historical Fiction about the American West ? Try "The Diary of Mattie Spenser" by Sandra Dallas, "These is my Words" by Nancy e. Turner

Lucia St. Clair Robson is a really great author. She has written a lot of westerns. I would highly recommend Ride the Wind which is about the Comanche (if I remember correctly, lol) and Cynthia Ann Parker's abduction by them. Walk in my Soul is another great one. This is about Sam Houston's younger days in which he spent quite a bit of time with the Cherokee. The last book by her that I read is about the American Revolution, Shadow Patriots and is not as great as the others but is still pretty interesting. I know she has a few others also. That is all I can think of for now. Hope it helped :)

The Big Sky, The Way West, and These Thousand Hills by A.B. Guthrieare real classics. Also very good are Crazy Horse by Mari Sandoz, and Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge. When I was a kid I read a novel about Cochise and his friendship with a white man called Broken Arrow by Eliot Arnold. Some of you may remember a TV series from the 50s/60s based on it. As a teenager, I loved the book. Douglas Jones has also written a number of books set in Oklahoma. All were very good, though the only title I can remember is, I think,Winding Stair.

Elmer Kelton writes books about the west, especially Texas, True Women by Janice Windle also covers Texas history. Lords of the Plains by E. Wallace & A Distant Trumpet by Paul Horgan are classic stories of the battles between the US Cavalry & the Native tribes of the western plains.

If you like something a little different you can try anything by Allan W. Eckert his novel of the life of the Indian war chief Tecumseh is very good
A Sorrow in Our The Life of Tecumseh and any of his winning America series The Frontiersmen , The Conquerors ect. The books follow the westward expantion though the ohio valley.
As mentioned by >7 laceyvail: laceyvail
The Big Sky by A. B, Guthrie Jr. also his pultizer prize winning The Way West
One other that comes to mind is Josey Wales: Two Westerns : Gone to Texas/The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales by Forrest Carter this book is two novels inone, the first being the souce for the movie "Josey Wales". These books recreate the real western gun fighters or pistilaros as they were called, not the dime novel image of the late 1800's or holywood.

Forgot to mention Willa cather and her books of the pioneering of Nebraska O Pioneers!, the Song of the Lark and My Antonia

Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses is not exactly a traditional western, but it is incredibly good.

I still pick up a western from time to time for a change - have enjoyed more than a few of them but rarely keep them in my library. Among authors, I generally like Louis L'Amour but I've also found that I usually like anything by Will Henry. I do still have my copy of Reveille by James Warner Bellah mostly about the cavalry in the west because a number of these were made into movies. In that regard, I want to track down and read some of the westerns written by Elmore Leonard for the same reason - the movies that were made from them.

Robert A. Mosher

On the message board for Westerns group, I mentioned Vardis Fisher. I'd also include Wallace Stegner. And, definitely, second Willa Cather, especially Death comes for the Archbishop.

Little Big Man by Thomas Berger is very worthwhile for an interesting vision of the old west. It reminded me of a combination of the McMurtry westerns, with the unsentimental portrayal of the old west, and George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman series, one of which, Flashman and the Redskins, is set in the American west, albeit in two different time periods.

I should add that if the definition of the American west expands to events that also take place in the western pre-Canadian provinces, then Guy Vanderhaeghe's great novel, The Englishman's Boy certainly qualifies as great western fiction.

Another good book that I enjoyed during my Western stage was Texas by James Michener it's long and detailed, but you really get a good view of life in the West and the origins of Texas, and why Texans think the way they do. Another good one is Giant by Edna Ferber I'm sure you've heard of the movie, but the book is so much more detailed and engrossing. I also second Lonesome Dove, one of my all time favorite books!

Centennial by James Michener
All Together In One Place by Jane Kirkpatrick
This it the first book of a series about 11 women on a wagon train whose husbands die on the journey. Jane has more books based on true stories, too.
I second The Diary of Mattie Spenser by Sandra Dallas and others of her books. She writes great stories with a twist at the end.

Just Bought Tombstone; An Iliad of the Southwest by Walter Noble Burns haven't started reading ot yet. Originally published in 1927.
It says it's a mixture of fact and fiction and includes a letter from Wyatt Earp to the author.