Jack Schaefer

In the summer of 1889, a mysterious and charismatic man rides into a small Wyoming valley, where he joins homesteaders who take a stand against a bullying cattle rancher, and where he changes the lives of a young boy and his parents.

Shane

Shane, a stranger the Starretts take in to their home in Wyoming in 1889, becomes involved in a feud between a cattle rancher and the local homesteaders.

The Canyon

In these classic stories acclaimed author Jack Schaefer yet again captures the spirit and adventure of the Old West. First Blood, Schaefer’s follow-up to Shane, tells the tale of Jess Harker, a young stagecoach driver finding his way in this coming-of-age story. Jess admires Race Crimm, the Company’s top messenger, for his stature and wild abandon and would have “shucked ten years of [his] life to be driving beside him.” Jess, eager to ride the big trails, has the chance to prove himself by driving an important shipment when trouble arises. Facing hard choices of honor and justice, he must pick a side because his life might just depend on it. “Jacob,” “Salt of the Earth,” and “One Man’s Honor” complete this engaging collection of stories by award-winning American treasure Jack Schaefer.

First Blood and Other Stories

The Big Range

Company of Cowards

The Kean Land and Other Stories

“Old Jake Hanlon sits on the edge of the mesa and looks out over miles of southwestern plain,” starts Jack Schaefer’s all-ages novel Mavericks. Old Jake Hanlon is “ancient and craglike, weathered and withered . . . something like a worn rocky butte himself.” Living in his memories, Hanlon prefers to reflect on his youth, when he lived every cowboy’s dream, rather than think about the old man he has become, now labeled “a decrepit old nuisance” by the folks in town. Ultimately, it is Old Jake’s recollection of the tales of his past—stories of endurance, strength, compassion, and cunning—that helps prepare him for death.

Mavericks

Awarded a 1961 Newbery Honor, Old Ramon tells the timeless coming-of-age story of a young boy who spends a summer with an old shepherd in the Mojave Desert. He leaves his textbooks behind for real life lessons with Ramon as his mentor. He learns not only how to care for the sheep but how to overcome fear, how to face death and responsibility, and the difference between being alone and being lonely. Written in Schaefer's charming and engaging style, the novel details a boy's discovery of both the value of friendship and the hardship of life.

Old Ramon

Stubby Pringle's Christmas

Monte Walsh

Walter Van Tilburg Clark

Oakley Hall

Alan Le May

Rediscover the golden age of the Western with this collection of four unforgettable novels of honor, adventure, and violence set against the magnificent landscapes of the American frontier The heroic exploits and violent struggles of the Old West come alive once more through this one-of-a-kind collection of four thrilling novels. Edited by Ron Hansen, this deluxe hardcover edition shows that the 1940s and 1950s was a golden age for the Western novel. In the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Ox-Bow Incident, Walter van Tilburg Clark explores the thin line between civilization and barbarism through the story of a lynch mob that targets three innocent men, exposing a dark authoritarian impulse at work the American frontier. Set in Wyoming in 1889, a time when ranchers and cattle companies waged war with each other, Jack Schaefer's iconic Shane deploys many of the genre's most essential elements, brilliantly filtered through a boy's perceptions. Alan Le May's The Searchers, the basis for John Ford's cinematic masterpiece starring John Wayne, follows the dogged quest of two men to rescue a young girl taken prisoner by Comanche warriors. And Oakley Hall's Warlock, a novel that anticipates the later books of Cormac McCarthy and Larry McMurtry, casts the battle for control of a southwestern outpost as a bloody saga pitting a marauding gang of cowboys and rustlers against the town's defenders, led by the legendary gunslinger Clay Blaisedell. All four novels were memorably adapted for the screen, and their gripping stories--told with brisk narrative energy, psychological depth, and laconic humor--have contributed unforgettably to the Western's enduring legacy in American culture.

The Ox-Bow Incident / Shane / The Searchers / Warlock

The Western: Four Classic Novels of the 1940s & 50s (LOA #331)

Monte Walsh has never met a horse he couldn’t ride, and Chet Rollins has never met one he couldn’t rope. For a decade they are unbeatable and inseparable, working as trail hands throughout the West until finally settling with Cal Brennan’s Slash Y. Their rough cowboy ethics see them through every imaginable challenge: blizzards, rustlers, outlaws, and card games gone wrong. Partial to pretty women, gambling, and practical jokes, Monte is often on the receiving end of trouble, while Chet is always there to break him out of jail or serve as a decoy until Monte can get out of town in a hurry. As the West begins to change, however—the automobile replacing the horse, the herds breaking up—the two friends part ways. Chet marries and goes on to become a successful merchant, banker, and politician; but Monte, unable to imagine anything but the cowboy’s way of life, refuses to the end to leave the range.

Based on a Cheyenne legend, this novel holds universal appeal as it explores the theme of a man’s conflict with his culture. It is the story of how Little Bear, a Cheyenne warrior who opposes war, reconciles the conflict between his personal values and the demands of his tribe. The dilemma faced by Little Bear gives rise to a story that is at once a compelling adventure tale, an authentic description of Indian life and ritual, and a parable of self-realization. First published in 1953, Schaefer considered The Canyon one of his personal favorites. This new release will be welcomed by Schaefer’s enduring admirers and by new Western literature enthusiasts. It is a classic not to be missed.

Jack Schaefer

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