In this first of four classic frontier novels, Louis L'Amour adds his own special brand to the life and adventures of one of America's favorite fictional cowboys, Hopalong Cassidy. In The Rustlers of West Fork, the quick-thinking, fast-shooting cowpuncher heads west to deliver a fortune in bank notes to his old friend, Dick Jordan. When he arrives at the Circle J, he discovers that the rancher and his daughter, Pam, are being held prisoner by a desperate band of outlaws led by the ruthless Avery Sparr and his partner Arnold Soper. Even if Hopalong Cassidy can free Jordan and Pam, he will have to lead them across rough and untamed Apache country, stalked by the outlaws who have vowed to gun him down. But Hopalong is no stranger to trouble, and before his guns or his temper cool, he's determines to round up Sparr and his gang and bring the outlaws to justice ... dead or alive! This classic tale of pursuit and survival is vintage L'Amour and adds new life and luster to the legend of Hopalong Cassidy.

Hopalong Cassidy rode into cattle country just east of the California line looking for his old friend Red Connors. He found Red holed up in a mountain cave with a bullet in his side and a story to tell. The ranchers around Tascotal had been losing their stock, and when Red caught the rustlers in the act, they hunted him down, shot him, and left him for dead. Jack Bolt, a savage, ruthless killer, has brought in a tough band of hard cases to run his operation. And now he’s sent them out to take care of the one man who stands in his way: Hopalong Cassidy. But Bolt’s about to learn the hard way that if you shoot down a man like Cassidy, you better make sure he never gets up again.

Hopalong Cassidy has received a message from the dead. Answering an urgent appeal for help from fellow cowpuncher Pete Melford, he rides in only to discover that his old friend has been murdered and the ranch Pete left to his niece, Cindy Blair, has vanished without a trace. Hopalong may have arrived too late to save Pete, but his sense of loyalty and honor demands that he find that cold-blooded killers and return to Cindy what is rightfully hers. Colonel Justin Tredway, criminal kingpin of the town of Kachina, is the owner of the sprawling Box T ranch, and he has built his empire with a shrewd and ruthless determination. In search of Pete’s killers and Cindy’s ranch, Hopalong signs on at the Box T, promising to help get Tredway’s wild cattle out of the rattler-infested brush. But in the land of mesquite and black chaparral, Cassidy confronts a mystery as hellish as it is haunting—a bloody trail that leads to the strange and forbidding Babylon plateau, to $60,000 in stolen gold, and to a showdown with an outlaw who has already cheated death once . . . and is determined to do it again.

Hoppy, Lucky, and California ride into an adventure that includes a stampede, a prairie fire, saloon fights, cattle rustling and stagecoach holdups.

Clarence E. Mulford spent his creative years, writing a vast saga of interlocking novels and stories, most of them dealing with the Bar-20 ranch and the men who called it home, chief among them a certain Hopalong Cassidy. Eventually Mulford's works became the nominal source of 66 Hollywood films, made between 1935 and 1948, and a 52-episode TV series (1952-54), all starring William Boyd as a character with the same name but very different from Mulford's. Hopalong Cassidy: On the Page, On the Screen covers each of Mulford's books and each of the Cassidy theatrical films in full detail. A comprehensive index enables readers interested in almost anyone or anything linked to the books or films-including eventual stars like Robert Mitchum, George Reeves, Jan Clayton and Barbara Britton-to find the relevant material instantly. It began in the waking dreams of a young civil servant in Brooklyn who spent evenings, weekends and vacations putting into words an old West he had imagined but never seen. Story by story, novel by novel he created a vast canvas centering around a Texas ranch he called the Bar-20 and the men who made it the focus of their loyalty, chief among them a red-headed liquor-swilling young puncher with a noticeable limp, Hopalong Cassidy. Clarence E. Mulford (1883-1956) was one of the most remarkable Western writers America has produced. His fictional universe is an immense saga, written over a third of a century, in which Cassidy and the other main characters go adventuring, fall in love, marry and have children, grow old and eventually take part in the adventures of the next generation. Mulford's life and world are explored in detail in the first several chapters of this book. In 1935, the now prosperous author signed the contracts that brought his world and characters to America's movie theaters-or at least so he hoped. But, except for a handful of character and place names, the 66 Hopalong Cassidy movies, made between 1935 and 1948, starring William Boyd as Cassidy, turned out to have almost nothing in common with Mulford's fiction. Those films captivated audiences on their first release. The finest of them were hailed by Western lovers as classics of the genre and, restored for satellite and DVD, continue to excite viewers today. This book covers all 66 Cassidy movies in depth. The final chapter recounts what happened in the late 1940s and early 1950s when Hoppymania swept the country as the films migrated to the infant medium of television, generating new celebrity and a huge fortune for William Boyd and quite a bit of money for Mulford too. With a comprehensive checklist of Mulford's writings and a complete filmography providing cast and credits for every Cassidy movie and every episode of the later TV series, Hopalong Cassidy: On the Page, On the Screen is the definitive book on a fascinating subject.

"Each copy of this special edition is bound in leather and has been personally signed by Grace Bradley Boyd. This edition is limited to 1000 signed and numbered copies, of which this is number 68, Publisher Proof"