AS a kid who read westerns in the 1950’s I have to say my preference is for the older novelists like Zane Grey, Jack London and more recently Louis L’Amour but then again Monte Walsh by Jack Schaefer is possibly my most reread western novel.
Best Westerns of the 20th Century
The Western Writers of America (WWA) had issued the lists of the Best Westerns twice before; in 1985 and again in 1995, both times with similar results in several areas. However, around the year 2000 the WWA felt it was time to reprise the Best Western Survey. They brought together a panel of fifty-five individuals from twenty-two states and one Canadian province provided them with their votes for the best work and authors of the 20th century. On the lists were 83 authors, 112 novels, 122 nonfiction books, 86 films, 64 short stories, 41 television series, and 22 television mini-series. All of the lists can be viewed at: www.westernwriters.org/best_westerns.htm. Listed below are 18 of the Best Western Novels… not in any order of distinction:
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
John Grady Cole, a 16-year-old dispossessed Texan, crosses the Rio Grande into Mexico in 1949, accompanied by his…
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