Thousands of black cowpunchers drove cattle up the Chisholm Trail after the Civil War, but only Nat Love wrote about his experiences. Born to slaves in Davidson County, Tennessee, the newly freed Love struck out for Kansas after the war. He was fifteen and already endowed with a reckless and romantic readiness. In wide-open Dodge City he joined up with an outfit from the Texas Panhandle to begin a career riding the range and fighting Indians, outlaws, and the elements. Years later he would say, "I had an unusually adventurous life". That was rare understatement. More characteristic was Love's claim: "I carry the marks of fourteen bullet wounds on different parts of my body, most any one of which would be sufficient to kill an ordinary man, but I am not even crippled". In 1876 a virtuoso rodeo performance in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, won him the moniker of Deadwood Dick. He became known as DD all over the West, entering into dime novels as a mysteriously dark and heroic presence. This vivid autobiography includes encounters with Bat Masterson and Billy the Kid, a soon-after view of the Custer battlefield, and a successful courtship. Love left the range in 1890, the year of the official closing of the frontier. Then, as a Pullman train conductor he traveled his old trails, and those good times bring his story to a satisfying end.

Rattlesnakes and ornery horses, the dreaded Texas Itch, midnight rambles in graveyards, trips to Mexico, and hard riding on the last open range: George Philip recounts all these adventures and more with wit and humour. George Phillip arrived in South Dakota from Scotland in 1899. For the next four years, he rode as a cowboy for his uncle's L-7 cattle outfit during the heyday of the last open range. But the cowboy era was a brief one, and in 1903 Philip turned in his string of horses and hung up his saddle to enter law school in Michigan. In these candid letters, Philip provides fascinating insights into the development of the West and of South Dakota. His writing details the cowboy's day-to-day work, from branding and roping to navigating across the palins by stars and buttes, as the great open ranges slowly closed up.

The Everett D. Graff Collection of Western Americana consists of some 10,000 books, manuscripts, maps, pamphlets, broadsides, broadsheets, and photographs, of which about half are described in the present catalogue. The Graff Collection displays the remarkable breadth of interest, knowledge, and taste of a great bibliophile and student of Western American history. From this rich collection, now in The Newberry Library, Chicago, its former Curator, Colton Storm, has compiled a discriminating and representative Catalogue of the rarer and more unusual materials. Collectors, bibliographers, librarians, historians, and book dealers specializing in Americana will find the Graff Catalogue an interesting and essential tool. Detailed collations and binding descriptions are cited, and many of the more important works have been annotated by Mr. Graff and Mr. Storm. An extensive index of persons and subjects makes the book useful to the scholar as well as to the collector and dealer. The book is not a bibliography but rather a guide to rare or unique source materials now enriching The Newberry Library's outstanding holdings in American history.

The legendary James Kenney recalls some of his greatest adventures as a teen-age cowboy on the Southwestern ranches of the 1930s.

"Sometimes frightening, sometimes funny, but always genuine and fascinating, Gittin' Western opens a window into a lifestyle most of us have dreamed about but few dared to pursue. Heartily recommended." -Kathy Tyers, best-selling author of Firebird Trilogy Refusing to live a life of quiet desperation, Duane Wiltse breaks the bonds of the status quo by leaving his extended family and job security in Michigan. Seeking the freedom and adventure of living on a ranch in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains, the Wiltse family relocates so their patriarch can wholeheartedly pursue his goal of establishing a big game hunting business in the rugged Wyoming landscape. Through the professional dangers of forest fires, bear attacks, and runaway horses and mules-and the personal challenge of coping with illness, divorce, and grief-Wiltse learns first-hand lessons of life and death. This engaging memoir vividly reveals the complexities of a maturing man, enterprising father, and driven husband struggling to achieve his dream.

It's the Cowboy Way! tells the full story of the amazing true adventures of group members Ranger Doug, Woody Paul, Too Slim, and Joey "The CowPolka King" for the first time, from their first gigs at "Herr Harry's Phranks 'N' Steins," in Nashville, to their rise to the top of the Grammy heap. Since 1977, Riders In The Sky has faithfully tended a musical tradition kindled by singing cowboy legends, such as Gene Autry and the Sons Of The Pioneers. Throughout its long career, the group has branded the genre with its own mark, crafting a well-balanced mix of both classic and original western songs—smooth harmony, hot licks, and comedy. Over the past quarter of a century, and more than 4,500 shows, 290 national TV appearances, 203 public radio shows, nearly 700 Grand Ole Opry appearances, 2.3 million miles on the road, two Grammy Awards, three television series, and 31 albums down the trail, a group that began with a commitment to carry on an American musical tradition has itself become a national treasure.

A true adventure story of a man who built a four-million acre cattle empire in the remote ranges of the British Columbia Interior.