Classic Western Literature

This Raging Bull Publishing set contains four classic Western books by Bret Harte.

It wasn't a journey that anyone would make willingly. But Dale Maffitt had little choice. Wanted for hanging on a trumped-up charge of horse-stealing, trailed by a relentless posse, Maffitt's only hope lay in Mexico. To live, he must ride fast and hard over the scorching Texas plains and beat the posse to the border. Once across, he would be safe from arrest, and the posse would have to turn back.

"The Virginian's pistol came out, and his hand lay on the table, holding it unaimed. With a voice as gentle as ever, a voice that sounded almost like a caress, drawling a very little more than usual so that there was almost a space between each word he issued orders to the man Trampas: "When you call me that, smile!" And he looked at Trampas across the table. Yes, the voice was gentle. But in my ears it seemed as if somewhere the bell of death was ringing; and silence, like a stroke, fell on the large room."

In book one - No Man’s Land - Ballard helped save a widow and her daughter from a hostile land grab in West Texas. Now, needing some cash, Jack has joined a cattle drive in Bandera, Texas and will serve as security and “Nighthawker” on the Western Trail heading toward Dodge City, Kansas. The trail, however, is beset with trouble. Storms, cattle thieves, and Indian attacks follow Jack and the Triple T cattle drive, and the further north they go the worse it gets.

James Cooper and Henry Newton Brown form a close friendship when, along with Billy the Kid, they fight in the Lincoln County War. After that, James and Henry move on, and their bond of friendship growing even stronger as James becomes a crusading newspaper editor and Henry, a town marshal feared by outlaws and lauded by his peers and the towns he served. But something goes wrong, and in an emotive moment, the two best friends find themselves face-to-face in a dramatic and poignant confrontation.

When word finally reaches him that his sister and her family have died a horrid death at the hands of a cattle baron and his craven cowhands, Taggart McBain comes down off the mountain with bear traps, a double barrel coach gun, two LeMats, and a Winchester. He's on the hunt. When the task is done and blood soaks the Nemesis, NV, desert, he receives a shock - his sister is still alive.

Noah Gates is a family appropriate Western novel. Noah starts out to find the thieves who stole his herd of trade horses, but time and weather wipe out all signs of their movements. With nothing else pressing on his life he wanders to Deadwood for the winter and then to Dakota Territory, with troubles and another theft along the way. Heading towards the Colorado gold fields he agrees to guide Dora across the Montana plains, leaving her in Miles City. After a summer in the high up mountains he decides to find Dora again. Humor and romance ensue.

Scarred by the Civil War, now a loner by choice, Missouri-born Jack Ballard rides the West in search of trouble. Sometimes he's able to stop it from hurting innocent people - and sometimes he causes it. It can't be helped, though. He is a good man with a fast gun, and in West Texas in the late 1800s, trouble lies around every bend. Only he and his filed-down .44-40 Colt can stop it.

Nine-year-old Daniel Monroe’s life is shattered when a wagon train heading west to Oregon from Kentucky is attacked by outlaws and his family is slaughtered. Only luck and reluctant help from a cold and sullen man named Jacob Conrad enables him to survive. Dan follows Jake Conrad into an uncertain future and although his adopted father remains aloof and forever troubled, Dan learns to love the man who is as wild as the land around them, as uncompromising as the weather and, underneath his gruff exterior, as tender as a mountain sunrise.

For three-years, Jeb Benjamin and Zach Daughtry dreamed of traveling to California to gain their fortune, once released from Camp Douglas, an infamous Union POW hellhole. When the Confederate veterans reach Jeb’s sisters ranch in the Rio Grande valley, they find it in flames, his sister’s family dead and the ranch’s cattle stolen. Death and destruction haunt the veterans. A border war flares with General Juan Cortiña’s irregulars. Jeb learns Juan’s younger brother, Miguel, has raided their ranch, kidnapping his 14-year-old niece.

Kit Carson was legendary for his fighting skills. He could go toe to toe with any man and come out on top. But how could he beat an enemy that wasn't even human? When Kit found himself snowbound in an isolated mountain cabin with only a few friends, he knew they were in for a hard time. But then they started to see signs that they weren't alone - and whatever was out there in the snow wasn't like anything they had seen before. Kit and his friends had all heard tales of the Wendigo, but could they survive meeting one face-to-face?

Charlie Roy and pale, skinny Sir Arthur, an English gentleman, arrive at the Crown B ranch, north of Cheyenne, which is owned by the sir's sister, Elizabeth, who was widowed just the past winter and left with a ranch that lost nearly all its beef stock from the brutal '86-'87 winter freeze. Additionally, Elizabeth's dead husband's former partner, Justin Harper, is hell-bent on taking over her ranch. But what Harper and his boys don't figure on is interference by the likes of Charlie and the fierceness of the Sir.

Out on the frontier, there are two kinds of men. There's the kind who's tough with a gun in his hand, who preys on anyone or anything weaker than himself. And then there's the kind like Stillwater Smith. Long and lean, Stillwater's a grizzled Civil War veteran. He doesn't take easily to killing, but he's always ready to fight for what he believes in. And you can only push him so far, as Asa Wheeler, wealthy cattle rancher, is about to find out.

This is a collection of tales of the California Gold Rush era by the Western author, Bret Harte. It's a mix of local color, drama, and humor. Several film versions of "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" have been made, and John Payne and Ronald Reagan starred in an adaptation of "Tennessee's Partner" in 1955. The spaghetti Western Four of the Apocalypse is based on "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" and "The Luck of Roaring Camp".

Quinton, a drifter, stands idly by as a posse wreaks havoc throughout the region. No one is safe--not even cattle--as the gang rides through the hills with murderous intent. However, when the posse points its guns at Quinton, the range explodes into a bloody gun battle.

Jeston Nash bears a striking resemblance to his cousin Jesse Woodson James of Clay County Missouri. After killing a Yankee soldier in self-defense, Jeston meets his cousins, Jesse and Frank, and joins them to fight in Quantrill's guerilla forces. Later, after the war, he rides with the James-Younger gang as they invent their special brand of bank and train robbery. All the while, Jeston seeks vengeance against Daniel Zanone of the Free Kansas Militia - the man responsible for the death of his child.

This is the third in a series about the Saddle Boys in western-themed stories. You learned first about the adventures of two inquisitive youths of by-gone days. They are Frank Haywood, only son of rich miner/ranch owner Leonidas Haywood, and Frank’s friend Bob Archer, who hails from Kentucky. They became known far and wide after being seen riding and dashing over the prairies at top-notch speed. They were often confronted by a spoiled young Peg, (nickname for Percy Egbert Grant), whose wealthy father let him get by with more than he should.

When he learns of his parents' death in a train crash, Sam Dana makes his way home to the Bar D ranch—not to claim it, but to settle the estate and move on. He has no need for the hard life of a cattleman after finally striking it big as a prospector. But what Sam finds is far from the home he remembers. The ranch has become an armed camp led by his cantankerous half-brother, Walt, who's been hiring men more skilled with a six-gun than a lasso. In Sam's absence, things have gone downhill in all ways possible.

The Saddle Boys in this western-themed series are Frank Haywood, only son of rich miner/ranch owner Leonidas Haywood, and Frank’s friend Bob Archer, who hails from Kentucky. They became known far and wide after being seen riding and dashing over the prairies at top-notch speed. They were often confronted by a spoiled young Peg, (nickname for Percy Egbert Grant, whose wealthy father let him get by with more than he should).

Phil Evarts is dead, and the Hatchet Range is up for grabs. That's 70,000 acres of prime turf just waiting for the man rich enough to buy it . . . or the gunman crazy enough to kill for it. Every schemer in town has his eyes on Hatchet, and Bide Mariner leads the charge. An unscrupulous rancher who'll stop at nothing for cash, Mariner has the money and the guns to take whatever he wants. Only Will Ballard stands in his way—and that means Ballard is marked for death.