Books

[Bugscuffle]

Please give me a few suggestions on some good non-fiction books dealing with the history and day to day living conditions of the old west in the period 1860 to 1900.

[St. George]

If you look in the 'back pages' of this forum and the NCOWS forum - you'll see a myriad of suggested titles already submitted.

If you just want to start - go to the Public Library, and start checking out the Time-Life series - 'The Old West'.

Good Reading!

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Caleb Hobbs]

There are thousands of books that would fill that criteria. A time frame or particular interest would narrow the field. Two that came quickest to my mind were "Before Barbed Wire" and "The Frontier Years", both by Mark Brown and W. R. Felton. These books accompanied photos by L.A. Huffman, who photographed Montana beginning in the 1870s. Lots of good photos, but more of a focus on the Northern Plains region. It's a start.

Caleb

P.S. Lot's of university presses have a good selection on history, but two really good on-line catalogs to check out would be University of Oklahoma Press and Bison Books, from the University of Nebraska.

[Delmonico]

As for day to day living it would help to know who and where also.

[GunClick Rick]

 Legends by Forty Rod.. Or the Log of a Cowboy  by Andy Adams  Of course my favorite will always be The Virginian by Owen Wister... Just becuase it's the only one i ever read all the way through..

[Bugscuffle]

Legends by Forty Rod.. Or the Log of a Cowboy  by Andy Adams  Of course my favorite will always be The Virginian by Owen Wister... Just becuase it's the only one i ever read all the way through..

Smile when you say that pardner!

[Trailrider]

If you can find a copy or someone has it online, "We Pointed Them North" by E.C. "Teddy Blue" Abbott and Helen Huntington Smith, University of Oklahoma Press, Copyright 1939, Second Printing April 1962.  Teddy Blue was a friend of Charlie Russell, and son-in-law of Montana pioneer Granville Stewart. Teddy Blue's widow, passed away in a nursing home in Great Falls about 1966, when I was stationed at Malmstrom AFB. (Heard the announcement on the radio.)

There are also a number of books about Charles M. Russell, the man who could paint a Western sunset so well that when he died and went to Heaven it is often said the Big Boss turned the job over to Charlie!    Russell's accounts of his own life in Montana in the 1880's and later are priceless! He married a young girl about 20 years younger. Nancy Russell turned him from a sometime artist/sometime cowpoke into a commercial success who was making "dead man's wages" with his paintings while still alive. If you aren't familiar with Russell's paintings and sculptures, visit the Gilcrease Museum in Oklahoma, the Denver Art Museum, and, of course, the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana.

[GunClick Rick]

Smile when you say that pardner!

Wanna buy a bullfrog ranch?

[Delmonico]

There are also a number of books about Charles M. Russell, the man who could paint a Western sunset so well that when he died and went to Heaven it is often said the Big Boss turned the job over to Charlie! 

That's what Ian Tyson says.

[Gun Creek Phil]

As told by Caleb, check these links you will find very interesting books

http://www.oupress.com/ECommerce/Book/Results?Query=subject=13

[Oregon Bill]

Two that I highly recommend are "The Border and the Buffalo," by John R. Cook, and "The life of Billy Dixon," by Olive Dixon.  You can't go wrong with Theodore Roosevelt's "Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail." A bit earlier -- late 1840s early 1850s, is Johnny Cremony's "Life Among the Apaches."  You have some truly memorable reading ahead, pard.

[Coal Creek Griff]

Interestingly, most or all of those last mentioned books can be downloaded for free if you don't object to e-books.  I prefer paper books, but bought a used e-reader because of the available free books. Archive.org and the Guttenberg Project are my primary sources for free books.

CC Griff

[Tsalagidave]

This question leaves me feeling like a mosquito in a nudist camp; dunno where to start.  Bugscuffle, is there a specific region and time of the old west era that you are primarily interested in?

-Dave