For many years one of the prime hardships on the western American frontier was the scarcity of women. Men could endure living a rough existence out in the open, fighting Indians and the elements, but the loneliness of life without women could become almost unendurable. Miners hacking out the wealth of the California Mother Lode treasured a scratched and bent tintype portrait of a woman as they would a solid gold nugget.      When a white...

     The robberies on the road to Yosemite during the early 1900s were unique for several reasons. Despite the lack of money involved, the number of coaches and passengers robbed at one time, coupled with the fact that the bandits were never apprehended, were reason enough to be remembered.        Even more important, however, was the fact that one of the holdups was actually photographed. This singular event was perhaps a fittin...

A professional screenwriter’s master class in writing the most critical and challenging script element―the individual scene.

On an April afternoon in 1836, the Battle of San Jacinto took place just east of what is today Houston, Texas. With that clash, a crucial phase of the westward expansion of the United States began. That single, swift, and surprising confrontation - amidst the cries of "Remember the Alamo! - set Texas free from Mexico. It also led to the shaping of much of the American West as we know it today. Here, in this short-form book, is the story of how Sam Houston and his rag-tag army crushed Santa...

In an era and an area notable for badmen and gunslingers, John Wesley Hardin was perhaps the most notorious. Considered by many of his contemporaries to be almost illiterate, he nevertheless left for publication after his death in 1895 this autobiography, which, though biased, is remarkably accurate and readable.

Of all the wars fought in or by America, only one takes its name from a single person.In 1675, when the English hold on New England was still fragile, one Indian, King Philip, organized the seperate Algonquin tribes into one powerful, military force with a single objective - to drive the English settlers back into the sea. King Philip's War almost did just that.For a year Algonquin forces terrorized English settlements. Out of ninety New England towns, fifty-two felt the fero...

Aaron Turner was a third generation American. His grandfather, Thomas Turner, first appearing in OUT OF THE WILDERNESS, had come from Ireland to settle in South Carolina. In this second installment in the Western Quest Series, Aaron hears the call of the West, like many Americans of the period. Each time Aaron travels to Vera Cruz, New Orleans or Natchitoches on trading ventures, he hears more and more about Texas. Finally, seduced by the lure of the unknown, he leads an expedition down th...

     The Texas Argonauts were on the march west as early as January, 1849 —a remarkable circumstance when it is recalled that the famous tea caddy of gold dust which set off the gold fever in the “States” did not reach Washington, D. C, until December 7, 1848. From Brownsville, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio, the dusty trails of the gold seekers crisscrossed through West Texas and northern Mexico. Among the travelers was young attorney Benjamin Butler Harris, who joine...

This in-depth collection, unchanged since the 1940s, tells of the most legendary heroes and villains of the Old West. Get swept back to a time when sheriffs did their best to keep order in a lawless land. Read about the likes of Tom Horn, the “Apache Kid,” “Bucky” O’Neill, Tom Nickson, and many more!Famous Sheriffs and Western Outlaws is a classic for everyone interested in history and what is was like in the Old West. The detail of every story grabs the attention of the r...

On 14 May 1804, one Captain Meriwether Lewis and his companion William Clark led a thirty-three-man expedition to the new lands of Louisiana. 8,000 miles and two years later, after rafting up the Missouri and crossing the Rocky Mountains, they reached the far side of the world, the Pacific Ocean.Fredrick Nolan explores the first US settlers of the American West, including the remarkable stories of unsung heroes and heroines, the bloody battles between settlers and the native Americ...

Harry Turtledove, author of perhaps the most famous alternate-history novel about Robert E. Lee (The Guns of the South, 1992), here returns with Lee at the Alamo, a look at what the great military leader might have done under only slightly different circumstances.In the history we know, General Robert E. Lee felt compelled to fight on the Confederate side, because honor (as he saw it) forbade him to take up arms against Virginia, his nati...

Spanning four and a half centuries, James A. Michener’s monumental saga chronicles the epic history of Texas, from its Spanish roots in the age of the conquistadors to its current reputation as one of America’s most affluent, diverse, and provocative states. Among his finely drawn cast of characters, emotional and political alliances are made and broken, as the loyalties established over the course of each turbulent age inevitably collapse under the weight of wealth and industry. With Mich...