The sticky's mum on the subject and there doesn't seem to be a preexisting chart, so let's put one together.
Definitely putting: Lonesome Dove (McMurtry), The Ox-Bow Incident (Clark), and Corncob will get an entry, just have to decide to do one of the Border Trilogy books or BM. Uncertain about books which are historically relevant but of unknown quality to me like The Virginian (Wister) or nonfiction accounts like We Pointed Them North (Abbott). I doubt Zane Grey or Louis L'Amour have put out anything of literary merit,but I'm willing to look into anything if you can put up a decent argument for it. Elmore Leonard's works might qualify, but I'd have to look into those too.
Unfortunately westerns have been more or less dead as a genre since the late 80s, so I'm not familiar with more contemporary material. Looking to circumvent Civil War-focused fiction, since I consider that a distinct enough category on its own.
Before anyone brings up Zahler because they thought Bone Tomahawk was good, I'm reading A Congregation of Jackals right now and it's not something I could put on a rec chart in good conscience. Not that it's bad, I just think anons have higher standards than what he provides as a writer. I also have The Beetle Leg by John Hawkes on the maybe list. It shouldn't take me long to read it and figure out. True Grit and Portis' other works also a maybe.
I'll see what I can find. Any titles in particular stand out?
That pic is amazing, the amount of trust it takes between horse and rider to get a horse to do such a thing with a rider on its back is impressive. I have known some horses very well over the years but never knew one well enough that it would take me down something even half that height while I was on its back, always had to get off and go down along side. The bond that can develop between a horse and a person is absolutely unique, it is sad most will never know it.
Oliver Sullivan
With the advent of trains and automobiles, Man forgot his long history of partnership with the horse. A horse to the average modern man is, at best, the subject of horse girl jokes which are not entirely invalid and a baffling waste of space and resources otherwise.
That is one happy and content horse. I can not wait until I can buy some land and get myself and equine friend.
Parker Taylor
>the subject of horse girl jokes which are not entirely invalid Marnie (the book not the movie) will make you feel for horse girls. Even horse girls don't deserve to get dicked over like that. Is it strictly westerns? At Swim Two Birds pokes fun at classic Irish and Latin and Greek myth, but it's also about cowboys becoming more popular again as the 20th Century and mass market books made genre possible again.
Parker Phillips
Where should I start with westerns? Never read one, well, we read Shane in 7th or 8th grade but I do not remember it at all, seen and enjoyed some of the movies, remember watching Lonesome Dove with my dad when I was little but do not really remember it. I have always avoided the genera because I have an aversion to the black and white view of good vs evil that seems prevalent in much of it.
Jack Baker
How bout Oakley Hall’s Warlock?
Colton Sanders
The Ox-Bow Incident is a great starting place and it's widely available. Not too long, direct but solid writing, and the focus on mob mentality is perennially relevant. I particularly like that so much effort is dedicated to the buildup and internal machinations of how mobs get started and are perpetuated rather than skipping to the pitchfork rabblerabble oh isn't it sad the state of humanity and calling it a day. Clark similarly held the black/white dichotomy of western 'horse oprey', as he called it, in contempt, so he should be right up your alley. Give it two chapters to see if you're in or not, the first chapter is mostly scene-setting.
Lonesome Dove is good if you want a long, comfy read. Haven't seen the movie so I don't know how the two compare. It's part of a series, so if you want more, it's there, but I haven't gotten around to them yet so I can't attest to their quality.
I'm willing to consider At Swim if any other anons have thoughts on it. Marnie sounds interesting too.
The Lonesome Dove I remember was either a TV show or mini series, it was fairly long and I remember watching the new episode every week with my dad.
Jayden Cox
Ah, that's right, it was a miniseries. 4 parts by the looks of it. The other books in the series got miniseries too, though I don't recall them being as critically acclaimed as Lonesome Dove's adaptation was.
Leo Gutierrez
Marnie isn't a cowboy novel. It does have a horse girl, but that's as far as the similarity with cowboy novels go. The movie changed too much from the book to be as good as the book, which is my only criticism of Hitchcock that I can think of across his movies. At Swim connects modern cattle rustling cowboys with the Irish myths about stealing mythical cows. A good patch of it is the two cowboys trying to play poker with a senile mythic hero who tried to tell of brave feats but just rambles on, and a puca, and a good fairy who has credit issues while waiting to kidnap some sweetshop owners. Samefag here obviously so wait and see if anyone else shows up to vote for postmodern cowboys.
Noah Martin
>Marnie Didn't make it clear in my previous post, I think it's interesting for my personal reading interests, not so much the chart. Let's see if the thread can survive the night. If not I'll scrounge up what I can in the meantime and check back in next Sunday with a preliminary draft of the chart.
Fortunately you were here to mention it so we can add it. Charts are a comprehensive project that require the knowledge and experience of a number of anons to put a good one together, especially for something like Westerns, which is one of the most underrepresented genres on Yea Forums.
It is a good book, but I doubt many western fans will enjoy it, the western qualities play into the surrealist/absurdist nature of the book.
Wyatt Cooper
I haven’t read Elmore Leonard’s other westerns but I did think Hombre was excellent.
Cameron Bailey
>I'll see what I can find. Any titles in particular stand out? I don't think that you'll find much in English unfortunately. I love a certain "pentalogy", although it's somewhat complicated because these weren't books in the first place, so different book editions have different contents. Since I don't speak German, it's kinda hard for me to find information. What I managed to find out the books I've read and love are part of Waldröschen cycle or whatever. A part was published as followed:
Das Waldröschen I - Schloss Rodriganda Das Waldröschen II - Die Pyramide des Sonnengottes Das Waldröschen III - Benito Juarez Das Waldröschen IV - Trapper Geierschnabel Das Waldröschen V - Der sterbende Kaiser
I really don't know if anything was translated into English.
Nathan Hughes
And of course, Winnetou Trilogie is his most popular work.
