The Thirtieth anniversary edition of THE Kansas cult novel--a wild romp across 1970s Kansas--with a new foreword by Howard Lamar, new afterword by the author, and a reprinted essay, "The Last Cattle Drive Stampede," that is a send-up of some of Hollywood's feckless attempts to make a move based on the popular novel.

First published in 1977, Robert Day’s The Last Cattle Drive—an instant bestseller and Book-of-the-Month Club selection—is now a modern-day Western classic. This raucous, rollicking novel of a cattle drive in the age of the automobile revived a genre and added its own special twists in capturing the imagination of readers nationwide. To honor the thirtieth anniversary of its publication, the University Press of Kansas is proud to announce a new 30th anniversary edition of this much-loved work. This edition includes these new features: a foreword by acclaimed Western historian Howard R. Lamar, reflecting on the novel’s enduring popularity; an afterword by Robert Day recalling the experience of writing the novel and commenting on his own literary heroes (among them Mark Twain); “The Last Cattle Drive Stampede,” Day’s hilarious piece about failed attempts to make a movie of the book; and special endpaper maps of the cattle-drive route. Whether you’re renewing your affection for an old favorite or coming to the work for the first time, this new edition will be a book to treasure and return to time and time again.

Fetching, with some tall, raunchy saddletalk and a style as clear as sweet buttered corn.

Tells the stories of sixteen women who drove cattle up the trail from Texas during the last half of the nineteenth century.

How did cattle drives come about—and why did the cowboy become an iconic American hero? Cattle drives were the largest, longest, and ultimately the last of the great forced animal migrations in human history. Spilling out of Texas, they spread longhorns, cowboys, and the culture that roped the two together throughout the American West. In cities like Abilene, Dodge City, and Wichita, buyers paid off ranchers, ranchers paid off wranglers, and railroad lines took the cattle east to the packing plants of St. Louis and Chicago. The cattle drives of our imagination are filled with colorful cowboys prodding and coaxing a line of bellowing animals along a dusty path through the wilderness. These sturdy cowhands always triumph over stampedes, swollen rivers, and bloodthirsty Indians to deliver their mighty-horned companions to market—but Tim Lehman’s Up the Trail reveals that the gritty reality was vastly different. Far from being rugged individualists, the actual cow herders were itinerant laborers—a proletariat on horseback who connected cattle from the remote prairies of Texas with the nation’s industrial slaughterhouses. Lehman demystifies the cowboy life by describing the origins of the cattle drive and the extensive planning, complicated logistics, great skill, and good luck essential to getting the cows to market. He reveals how drives figured into the larger story of postwar economic development and traces the complex effects the cattle business had on the environment. He also explores how the premodern cowboy became a national hero who personified the manly virtues of rugged individualism and personal independence. Grounded in primary sources, this absorbing book takes advantage of recent scholarship on labor, race, gender, and the environment. The lively narrative will appeal to students of Texas and western history as well as anyone interested in cowboy culture.

Head 'em up, move 'em out! Saddle up for the first full-length account of one of the most authentic and enduring western series in television history: Rawhide! Including: * Foreword by Charles Gray * Cast biographies * Production details * Summaries of all 217 episodes with broadcast dates, directors, writers and guest stars * 49 photographs * Interview with frequent guest star Gregory Walcott * Full index