Thursday, July 24, 2025

Westerns: A Reading List

 


Most of the following western novels are often listed as classics. Since I have put the ones that I've read in bold, you can see that I am way behind.

  • Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry 
  • The Wonderful Country by Tom Lea
  • The Virginian by Owen Wister
  • The Travels of Jamie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor
  • Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge
  • Hombre by Elmore Leonard
  • Take of Valor by Vardis Fisher
  • Outlawed by Anna North
  • The Outrider by Luke Short
  • Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
  • The Sackett Brand by Louis L'Amour
  • True Grit by Charles Portis
  • The Sisters Brothers by Patrick de Witt
  •  Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
  • Valdez is Coming by Elmore Leonard
  • Desperadoes by Ron Hansen
  • The Hell Bent Kid by Charles O. Locke
  • Welcome to Hard Times  by E.L. Doctorow
  • The Way West by A.B. Guthrie
  • The Big Sky by A.B. Guthrie
  • The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
  • Shane by Jack Shaefer
  • Hondo by Louis L'Amour
  • The Searchers by Alan Le May
  • Butcher's Crossing by John Williams
  • Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
  • The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton
  • Flashman and the Redskins by George MacDonald Fraser
  • Centennial by James Michener
  • The Shootist by Glen Swarthout
  • The Son by Philipp Meyer
  • El Paso by Winston Groom
  • The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin
  • Gone to Texas by Asa Earl Carter
  • News of the World by Paulette Jiles
  • Monte Walsh by Jack Shaefer
  • The Revenant by Michael Punke
  • Wild Times by Brian Garfield
[Photo by Cayetano Gil at Unsplash]

2 comments:

Jean said...

Lonesome Dove is phenomenal. I should read more of his.
Embarrassed to admit that is the only one on your list I've read.

Michael Wade said...

Lonesome Dove is probably the best western ever written. [They also did a good job with the film version.] Don't miss reading True Grit and News of the World.

Michael