The Literary West

The story of western literature is the story of two Wests, the one immediately and deeply persuasive, the second more complex in its intentions and effects. This anthology, gathered and introduced by distinguished western scholar Thomas J. Lyon, offers the panoramic literary range of the American West, from the romance of the mythic Wild West to the present day creative explosion of the real, diverse West. With more than forty selections, including essays, short stories, poetry, excerpts from novels and diaries, and a complete play, The Literary West ranges from the early explorers to the greatest twentieth-century authors. The West has offered a compelling set of images — the rider and his horse, the wide-brimmed hat, the sea of grass, the view to the far mesa, the war-bonneted Indian — but the selections Lyon gathers here show the region is much more than cowboys and scenery.

This anthology, gathered and introduced by distinguished western scholar Thomas J. Lyon, offers the panoramic literary range of the American West, from the romance of the mythic Wild West to the present-day creative explosion of the real, diverse West.

The real West has been written about since first contact in the sixteenth century, in the diaries of explorers ranging from Franciscan missionary Pedro Font to Lewis and Clark. A Native American tradition of cultural expression preceded European settlers by thousands of years, and today a contemporary Native renaissance in fiction includes writers N. Scott Momaday and Linda Hogan. The naturalist John Muir stands at the beginning of a lineage of western nature writers, and successors including Mary Austin, Edward Abbey, and Rick Bass have raised ecological awareness of the West.

Over the past century, there has also been a tremendous drive in western fiction to cut through the mythology spread by the "dime novels" that gained popularity in the 1860s; Owen Wister's The Virginian and Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage presented a simplified and heroic West that would hold sway in the public imagination until serious novelists like Willa Cather, John Steinbeck, and Wallace Stegner established a shadow country to the mythic frontier. Today, works coming from ethnic minority writers including Amy Tan, Denise Chavez, and Rudolph Anaya have helped bring the real, diverse West to light. This authoritative and adventuresome collection shows why the West has occupied such a prominent place in the national consciousness, and reveals that western writers may currently be mapping out a significant development in American thought.

Gathered and introduced by a distinguished western scholar, this book offers the panoramic literary range of the American West, from the romance of the mythic Wild West to the modern explosion with the real West.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [425]-437) and index.

Thomas J. Lyon is Professor Emeritus of English at Utah State University and former President of the Western Literature Association.

Introduction: The Conquistador, the Lone Ranger, and Beyond

A Western Chronology, With 200 Significant Titles

Kathlamet Chinook (oral tradition)

"The Sun's Myth"

Pedro Font [Ventura to Santa Barbara in 1776],

from Pedro Font's Diary

Lewis and Clark [North Dakota journals from the spring of 1805],

from The Journals of Lewis and Clark

John Muir "Through the Foothills with a Flock of Sheep,"

from My First Summer in the Sierra

Clarence Dutton "The Valley of the Virgen,"

from Tertiary History of the Grand Canon District

Sarah Winnemucca

from Life Among the Piutes

Hamlin Garland "Under the Lion's Paw,"

from Main Traveled Roads

Owen Wister

from The Virginian

Mary Austin "My Neighbor's Field,"

from The Land of the Little Rain

Jack London "All Gold Canyon,"

from Moon-face and Other Stories

Zane Grey

from Riders of the Purple Sage

Willa Cather

from O Pioneers!

from My Antonia

Dorothy Scarborough

from The Wind

Robinson Jeffers

"Granite and Cypress"

"Tor House"

"November Surf"

"Gray Weather"

"Signpost"

"The Answer"

Luther Standing Bear "Nature,"

from Land of the Spotted Eagle

John Steinbeck Chapters 1, 2, and 3,

from The Grapes of Wrath

A.B. Guthrie, Jr. Chapters 31 and 32,

from The Big Sky

Jack Schaefer Chapter 1,

from Shane

Frank Waters "Hopi Ceremonialism,"

from Masked Gods

Jose Antonio Villarreal

from Pocho

William Stafford

"In Response to a Question"

"Speaking Frankly"

"Representing Far Places"

"Montana Eclogue"

N. Scott Momaday "Introduction" to

The Way to Rainy Mountain

Al Young "Dancing,"

from Dancing

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston Chapter 4,

from Farewell to Manzanar

Edward Abbey "The Great American Desert,"

from The Journey Home

Wallace Stegner Part 2, chapter 5,

from Recapitulation

Sam Shepard

"True West"

Rudolfo Anaya "B. Traven Is Alive and Well in Cuernavaca,"

from The Anaya Reader

Gary Snyder

"Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout"

"Marin-An"

"Anasazi"

"Magpie's Song"

"True Night"

Gretel Ehrlich "On Water,"

from The Solace of Open Spaces

Louis L'Amour Chapter 16,

from Last of the Breed

Denise Chavez "The Last of the Menu Girls,"

from The Last of the Menu Girls

May Swenson

"The Centaur"

"The Poplar's Shadow"

"Camping in Madera Canyon"

Charles Bowden "Afterword"

from Frog Mountain Blues

Amy Tan "Waverly Jong: Rules of the Game,"

from The Joy Luck Club

Terry Tempest Williams "Snowy Plovers"

from Refuge

William Kittredge "Reimagining Warner,"

from Heart of the Land

Rick Bass "Days of Heaven,"

from In The Loyal Mountains

Barbara Kingsolver "Why I Am a Danger to the Public,"

from Homeland and Other Stories

Linda Hogan "Creations,"

from Heart of the Land

Guide to Further Reading