Best Westerns

Books, that is. Not the hotel chain. A sampling of the best westerns written.
Updated October 2, 2022
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Best Westerns

Books, that is. Not the hotel chain. A sampling of the best westerns written.
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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
Now a major motion picture from Columbia Pictures starring Matt Damon, produced by Mike Nichols, and directed by Billy Bob Thornton. The national bestseller and the first volume in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy, All the Pretty Horses is the tale of John Grady Cole, who...
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry
Paper Book
A love story and an epic of the frontier, Lonesome Dove is the grandest novel ever written about the last, defiant wilderness of America. Richly authentic, beautifully written, Lonesome Dove is a book to make readers laugh, weep, dream and remember. Now a blockbuster television event.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Ron Hansen
Paper Book
Perfect gift idea for kids ages 4 to 8! This fun activity book is filled with delightful stories, coloring pages full of ballerinas, princesses, and fairies, and engaging activities: PACKED FULL OF ACTIVITIES: Coloring, Stories, Drawing, Mazes, Search and Find, Picture Puzzles and much...
The Quick and the Dead
Louis L'Amour
Audiobook
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...
The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains
Owen Wister
Paper Book
The Sisters Brothers
Patrick deWitt
Paper Book
A BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST AND A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Publishers Weekly * Amazon * Hudson Booksellers * Washington Post Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli...
No Country for Old Men
Cormac McCarthy
Paper Book
Set in our own time along the bloody frontier between Texas and Mexico, this is Cormac McCarthy’s first novel since Cities of the Plain completed his acclaimed, best-selling Border Trilogy. Llewelyn Moss, hunting antelope near the Rio Grande, instead finds men shot...
Centennial
James A. Michener
Paper Book
"Michener is America's best writer, and he proves it once again in CENTENNIAL." THE PITTSBURGH PRESS A stunning panorama of the West, CENTENNIAL is an enthralling celebration of our country, brimming with the glory and the greatness of the American past that only bestselling author James Michener...
The Son
Philipp Meyer
Paper Book
Philipp Meyer, the acclaimed author of American Rust, returns with The Son: an epic of the American West and a multigenerational saga of power, blood, land, and oil that follows the rise of one unforgettable Texas family, from the Comanche raids of the 1800s to the to the oil booms of the 20th...
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.
Paper Book
From Pulitzer Prize-winning author A. B. Guthrie, Jr., The Big Sky is a classic portrait of America's vast frontier that inspired the Western genre in fiction. The Best Novel of the American West as chosen by members of the Western Literature Association ...
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...
The Shootist
Glendon Swarthout
Paper Book
This is the all-time classic novel chosen by the Western Writers of America as one of the best western novels ever wrttten. It is also the inspiration for John Wayne's last great starring role--the acclaimed 1976 film, The Shootist This special commemorative edition includes a brand new introduction...
Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy
Paper Book
One of The Atlantic's "Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years," now with a new foreword by Marlon James Widely considered one of the finest novels by a living writer, Blood Meridian is an epic tale of the violence and corruption that attended America's westward...
Little House on the Prairie
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Paper Book
Inspiration for the Netflix series Little House on the Prairie! 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...
Riders of the Purple Sage
Zane Grey
Paper Book
Over 40 Million Copies Of Zane Grey's Novels Sold The premier chronicler of the American West, legendary storyteller Zane Grey has captivated millions of readers with his timeless adventures of life, death, gunfire, and justice. This is the Old West in all its glory and grandeur....
Shane
Jack Schaefer
Paper Book
Shane, a stranger the Starretts take into their home in Wyoming in 1889, becomes involved in a feud between the cattle ranger and the local homesteaders.
The Gunslinger
Stephen King
Paper Book
In 1978 Stephen King introduced the world to the last Gunslinger, Roland of Gilead.  Nothing has been the same since. Over twenty years later the quest for the Dark Tower continues to take readers on a wildly epic ride. Through parallel worlds and across time, Roland must brave desolate wastelands...
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,...
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