Best Western Novel

Close Range: Wyoming Stories is a 1999 short story collection by Annie Proulx, set primarily in rural Wyoming. It won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2000 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The collection's most famous story, 'Brokeback Mountain,' was adapted into the 2005 film directe...

Giants in the Earth is a novel by Norwegian-American author Ole Edvart Rølvaag, first published in Norwegian in 1924 as two volumes and issued in English translation in 1927. It follows a group of Norwegian immigrants who settle on the Dakota prairie in the 1870s, chronicling their struggles with is...

Published in 1999, Plainsong is a literary novel by American author Kent Haruf that explores the intersecting lives of residents in the fictional farming town of Holt, Colorado. The narrative follows a high school teacher, two elderly bachelor farmers, and a pregnant teenager as they form an unconve...

Andersonville is a historical novel by MacKinlay Kantor published in 1955, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1956. The novel depicts the conditions at Camp Sumter, the Confederate prisoner-of-war camp located in Andersonville, Georgia, which operated from 1864 to 1865 during the American C...

The Big Rock Candy Mountain is a 1943 semi-autobiographical novel by Wallace Stegner that explores the American immigrant experience and frontier life. The narrative follows the Mason family—patriarch Bo, his wife Elsa, and their sons—as they endlessly migrate across the western United States and Ca...

"Honey in the Horn" is a debut novel by Harold L. Davis, published in 1935 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the following year. Set in early-twentieth-century Oregon, the narrative follows a diverse cast of drifters, settlers, and ranchers as they navigate the state's sprawling frontier la...

Death Comes for the Archbishop is a historical western novel by Willa Cather. It portrays the experiences of Father Sebastian Keaton, a Catholic priest, as he attempts to establish a church and community in New Mexico during 1927. The story explores themes of faith, cultural conflict, and the challe...

Lord Grizzly is a biographical western novel written by Frederick Manfred, published in 1954. The book provides a fictionalized account of the historical American frontiersman Hugh Glass, detailing his survival journey after being severely mauled by a grizzly bear in 1823. Left for dead by his compa...

Montana 1948 is a 1993 novella by American author Larry Watson, set in the fictional town of Bentrock, Montana. The story is narrated by David Hayden, who recounts events from the summer of 1948 when his father, the local sheriff, investigated allegations of sexual assault against his uncle Frank, a...

My Antonia is a Western novel by Willa Cather chronicling the life of Antonia Shimerda, a Czech immigrant woman in Nebraska during the early 20th century. The story details her struggles and triumphs on the prairie alongside her family and neighbors. It offers a poignant look at pioneer life and the...

Eventide is a literary novel by Kent Haruf published in 2004, set in the fictional farming community of Holt, Colorado. As a sequel to his earlier novel Plainsong, the book revisits several established characters, including the elderly McPheron brothers and their adopted daughter, Victoria. The narr...

Ivan Doig’s *Dancing at the Rascal Fair* portrays life among Scottish homesteaders establishing a new existence in Montana during the late nineteenth century. The novel offers a detailed and poignant look at their struggles and triumphs as they adapt to the harsh environment and build communities. I...

Wizard and Glass (1997) is the fourth novel in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, blending fantasy, horror, and western elements. Much of the book is a flashback in which gunslinger Roland Deschain recounts his youth in the barony of Mejis, his first love for Susan Delgado, and the betrayal that set...

Track of the Cat is a 1949 Western novel by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, set on an isolated ranch in the Nevada mountains during winter. The story follows three brothers who hunt a legendary black mountain lion, a pursuit that acts as a catalyst for intense family conflicts. As the hunt progresses, the...

The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton portrays the profound impact of a prolonged drought on a Texas ranching family during the early 1970s. Set against the backdrop of the 1950s, the novel realistically depicts the hardships faced by farmers and ranchers struggling with water scarcity and econom...

"Doc" is a historical fiction novel written by Mary Doria Russell and published in 2011. The book provides a biographical depiction of the American Old West figure Doc Holliday, specifically focusing on his life as a dentist and gambler in Dodge City, Kansas, during the late 1870s. It explores his c...

Peder Victorious is a 1929 novel written by Norwegian-American author Ole Edvart Rølvaag. As the second book in a trilogy, it continues the narrative of a Norwegian immigrant family in southeastern Dakota Territory, following their son Peder. The story explores themes of cultural assimilation, relig...

English Creek is a 1984 novel by Ivan Doig and the first published volume of his Montana trilogy, followed by Dancing at the Rascal Fair and Ride with Me, Mariah Montana. Set in 1939, it is narrated by Jick McCaskill, a fourteen-year-old growing up in a ranching community along the Rocky Mountain Fr...

"Paso Por Aqui" is a 1927 western novella written by Eugene Manlove Rhodes, often regarded as a masterwork of the genre. Set in the New Mexico Territory, the story centers on a group of outlaws who seek refuge in an isolated ranch during a smallpox epidemic. The narrative subverts standard western t...

O Pioneers! is a 1913 novel by American writer Willa Cather and the first volume of her Great Plains trilogy. Set in rural Nebraska, it follows Alexandra Bergson, the daughter of Swedish immigrants, as she assumes control of the family farm and turns difficult prairie land into a productive enterpri...

"Epitaph" is a 2015 historical novel by American author Mary Doria Russell. It is a sequel to her 2011 novel "Doc" and continues the story of the Earp and Clanton families in Tombstone, Arizona, during the early 1880s. The novel covers the events leading to the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October...

"These Thousand Hills" is a 1956 novel by A.B. Guthrie Jr., the third installment in his sequence of Western novels following "The Big Sky" (1947) and "The Way West" (1952), the latter of which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The novel follows Lat Evans, a young man from Missouri who travels wes...

E.L. Doctorow's 1960 debut novel, a revisionist dark western set in the Dakota Territory that subverts frontier mythology; adapted into a 1967 film with Henry Fonda.

The Friendly Persuasion is a 1945 novel by Jessamyn West structured as a sequence of interconnected short stories. The narrative follows the Birdwell family, a group of Quakers living in rural Indiana during the American Civil War. The stories explore the tension between their pacifist religious bel...

Enemy Women is a historical fiction novel written by Paulette Jiles and published in 2002. The story is set in the Ozark region of Missouri during the American Civil War, focusing on the chaotic guerrilla warfare between Union militia and Confederate bushwhackers. The protagonist is Adair Colley, an...

The Day the Cowboys Quit is a 1971 historical Western novel by Texas author Elmer Kelton, based on the actual 1883 cowboy strike that occurred along the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle. The novel depicts the labor conflict that arose when cowboys on several ranches organized to protest against...

A Lantern in Her Hand is a novel by Bess Streeter Aldrich first published in 1928. It follows Abbie Deal, a pioneer woman who settles with her family in the Nebraska Territory, tracing her life from the 1850s through the early twentieth century as she sacrifices personal artistic ambitions for the d...

"Long Remember" is a historical novel written by MacKinlay Kantor and published in 1934. The narrative provides a detailed depiction of the three-day Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Unique for its time, the story prominently features the perspective of civilian townspeople living...

Monte Walsh is a Western novel written by Jack Schaefer and published in 1963. The narrative follows the life of its eponymous protagonist, a skilled cowboy, as he navigates the transition from the open-range era of the 1870s to the industrialized early 20th century. The book explores the challenges...