Best Westerns

Books, that is. Not the hotel chain. A sampling of the best westerns written.
Updated October 2, 2022
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
True Grit
Charles Portis
Paper Book
#1 New York Times bestseller "An epic and a legend." --Washington Post "Quite simply, an American masterpiece." --Boston Globe "Charles Portis had a wonderful talent--original, quirky, exciting." --Larry...
All the Pretty Horses
Cormac McCarthy
Paper Book
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The first volume in the Border Trilogy, from the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road All the Pretty Horses is the tale of John Grady Cole, who at sixteen...
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry
Paper Book
The 40th anniversary edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic of the American West, with a new foreword by Yellowstone cocreator Taylor Sheridan. An epic of the frontier, Lonesome Dove is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness. ...
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Ron Hansen
Paper Book
American history's most famous outlaw comes alive in Ron Hansen's imaginative recreation of the West. The charismatic Jesse James has a quick temper, an even faster draw, and holds sway over his ragged gang-that is, until the arrival of upstart Robert Ford. Torn between worship and jealousy of...
The Quick and the Dead
Louis L'Amour
Paper Book
When Duncan McKaskel decided to move his family west, he knew he would face dangers, and he was prepared for them. He knew about the exhausting terrain, and he was expecting the punishing elements. What he worried about was having to use violence against other men-men who would follow him and try to...
The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains
Owen Wister
Paper Book
The epic novel of the American West and the heroic cowboy Owen Wister's powerful story of the tall, silent stranger who rides into the uncivilized West and defeats the forces of evil has become an enduring part of American mythology. Set in Wyoming Territory, The Virginian...
The Sisters Brothers
Patrick deWitt
Paper Book
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING JAKE GYLLENHAAL, JOHN C. REILLY AND JOAQUIN PHOENIX A BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure...
No Country for Old Men
Cormac McCarthy
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road comes a "profoundly disturbing and gorgeously rendered" novel (The Washington Post) that returns to the Texas-Mexico border, setting of the famed Border Trilogy.<...
Centennial
James A. Michener
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER Written to commemorate the Bicentennial in 1976, James A. Michener's magnificent saga of the West is an enthralling celebration of the frontier. Brimming with the glory of America's past, the story of Colorado--the Centennial State--is manifested through its...
The Son
Philipp Meyer
Audiobook
Soon to be a TV Series on AMC starring Pierce Brosnan and co-written by Philipp Meyer. The critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling epic, a saga of land, blood, and power that follows the rise of one unforgettable Texas family from the Comanche raids...
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Dee Brown
Paper Book
Doumented account of the decimation of Native Americans in the last half of the 19th century, told from the Indian viewpoint.
The Big Sky
A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
Audiobook
The Big Sky begins A. B. Guthrie, Jr.'s epic western saga that spans over a hundred years in the course of six novels. We are introduced to Boone Caudill, who travels the Missouri River from St. Louis to the Rockies, leaving his abusive father to find a life of freedom in the wild. Along the way...
The Ox-Bow Incident
Walter Van Tilburg Clark
Paper Book
Set in 1885, The Ox-Bow Incident is a searing and realistic portrait of frontier life and mob violence in the American West. First published in 1940, it focuses on the lynching of three innocent men and the tragedy that ensues when law and order are abandoned. The result is an emotionally...
Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy
Paper Book
25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION * From the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road: an epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the...
Little House on the Prairie
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Paper Book
Based on the real-life adventures of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie is the third book in the award-winning Little House series, which has captivated generations of readers. This edition features the classic black-and-white artwork from Garth Williams.  Laura Ingalls...
Riders of the Purple Sage
Zane Grey
Paper Book
A master of narrative momentum and suspense, Zane Grey sweeps readers into his stories and makes them feel that things are out of control, that boundaries are being burst. InRiders of the Purple Sage, the most famous novel of the American West, Grey creates a hero of epic...
Shane
Jack Schaefer
Paper Book
In Shane, Schaefer executes a perfect Western narrative while exploring the overarching themes of virtue, the human condition, and a man's search for self.
The Gunslinger
Stephen King
Paper Book
"An impressive work of mythic magnitude that may turn out to be Stephen King's greatest literary achievement" (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), The Gunslinger is the first volume in the epic Dark Tower Series. A #1 national bestseller, The Gunslinger...
Butcher's Crossing
John Williams
Paper Book
Now a major motion picture starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Gabe Polsky. In his National Book Award-winning novel Augustus, John Williams uncovered the secrets of ancient Rome. With Butcher's Crossing, his fiercely intelligent, beautifully written western,...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.