Western literature series

"These classic stories by the author of The Ox-Bow Incident reflect Clark's literary power and the major themes of his writing career. Clark was one of the modern West's most significant writers, among the first to explore the fragile, intricate interactions between humankind and the West's vast and often haunted landscape, as well as the interior and intuitive complexities of good and evil. This edition includes "Hook," Clark's most renowned story, and a foreword by literary critic Ann Ronald that sets the stories into the context of Clark's oeuvre and career."--Jacket.

From the Publisher: Much has been written about Zane Grey but little is known about his wife, Dolly, or their marriage. With three children, houses, yachts, fabulous wealth, and a long lasting marriage, they appear to be a conventional couple, but the reality of their personal life is startlingly different from the public facade. Zane Grey became the name for a huge enterprise based on his writing, which included books, magazine serials, film and stage versions, children's books and even comic strips, but he did not create this enterprise alone: Dolly guided, directed and managed his career. After editing his hand written manuscripts, she handled the business of publishing, meeting and negotiating with publishers, overseeing contracts, directing arrangements with movie studios, managing the finances, keeping her eye on the book market, determining how many and which manuscripts should be published, and perhaps most importantly, maintaining the facade of a conventional married life. His numerous affairs with other women might have threatened his reputation. Most of these relationships lasted many years. Dolly knew all about them, and both Dolly and Zane took great pains to hide his affairs. Much of their married life was spent apart and their marriage was sustained by a constant correspondence. It is in these letters that the nature of the marriage is revealed. It is also in these letters that we can see the extent of Dolly's participation in his business life as well as her own remarkable personality.

A volume of western myths and authentic Indian folk-tales for school use. Cocky young glaciers, contemplative pine trees, resourceful ancient Paiutes, and rabbits too clever for their own good. Through the kindly but mysterious Basket Woman, they all become the companions and teachers of Alan, the young son of homesteaders in early Nevada. The Basket Woman, a keeper of her people's traditions, doesn't simply tell stories: She transports her young friend into powerful mythic tales, where Alan learns the secret of the trees and animals and the wisdom of the people who flourished in this "land of little rain" before the arrival of foreigners from the East. While the stories make delightful and instructive reading for children, on another level they are an intense examination of the dramatic implications of a legacy of conquest upon the land and its native peoples. At eighteen, Mary Austin herself homesteaded in California during a catastrophic drought. These stories were written during her sometimes desperate life as a young mother and wife of a failed water developer in the region east of the Sierra Nevada. The proceeds of their publication in eastern magazines and later as a school text kept Austin's bankrupt family going.

In the New York Museum of Natural History, two children discover displays that come to life and admit them into a series of exciting adventures that include talking animals and magical travels through the vast landscapes of the pre-Columbian continent. Along the way, the children discover the lifeways of the ancient Native Americans and the natural worlds they inhabited, as well as the impact on both Indians and wildlife from contact with European explorers and Euro-Americans.

Set in the early 20th century at an isolated ranch in the Sierra Nevada mountains, cattle are disturbed and one family member Curt thinks it is a "black panther" (a puma or mountain lion). He and a brother set out in pursuit of the beast in the midst of winter. Left brotherless by the marauding cat, Curt continues his hunt and has a long and painful demise in the face of a harsh blizzard.

The Grand Canyon country of the 1880s is the setting of Oakley Hall's compelling new novel. As the plot unfolds, the West of the late nineteenth century is displayed in all its vastness and complexity. Hall carries us from the wild, perilous depths of the Canyon to the drawing rooms of San Francisco, from the desolate Mormon settlements and Indian camps of the Southwest to the haciendas of Old California. And he reveals once again his consummate power as a storyteller as he brings to life the fierce conflicts of the day - between rapacious mining and railroad barons eager to exploit the riches of the West and those who would preserve its beauty pristine; between Mormons and Gentiles; between land-hungry whites and beleaguered Indians; between men and the women they would love, and use. And the fiercest conflict of all - between man and nature.