The Wister Trace: Assaying Classic Western Fiction [Paperback]

A master practitioners view of his craft, this classic survey of the fiction of the American West is part literary history, part criticism, and entertaining throughout. The first edition of The Wister Trace was published in 1987, when Larry McMurtry had just reinvented himself as a writer of Westerns and Cormac McCarthys career had not yet taken off. Loren D. Estlemans long-overdue update connects these new masters with older writers, assesses the genres past, present, and future, and takes account of the renaissance of western movies, as well.

Estlemans title indicates the importance he assigns Owen Wisters 1902 classic, The Virginian. Wister was not the first writer of Westerns, but he defined the genre, contrasting chivalry with the lawlessness of the border and introducing such lines as When you call me that, smile! Estleman tips his hat to Wisters predecessors, among them Ned Buntline, the inventor of the dime novel, and Buffalo Bill. His assessments of Wisters successorsZane Grey, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, and Louis LAmour, to name but threesoon make clear the impossibility of differentiating great western writing from great American writing.

Especially important in this new edition is the attention to women writers. The author devotes a chapter each to Dorothy Johnsonauthor of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valanceand Annie Proulx, whose Wyoming stories include Brokeback Mountain. In his discussion of movies, Estleman includes a list of film adaptations that will guide readers to movies, and moviegoers to books. An appendix draws readers attention to authors not covered elsewhere in the volumesome of them old masters like Bret Harte and Jack London, but many of them fascinating outliers ranging from Clifford Irving to Joe R. Lansdale.