The Best of the West: An Anthology of Classic Writing from the American West [paperback, 1991]

This is the paperback edition of The Best of the West: An Anthology of Classic Writing from the American West, edited by Tony Hillerman and published by HarperCollins Publishers in New York City, NY. In this anthology, Hillerman, with the aid of Jack Rittenhouse, assembles a collection of fiction and non-fiction writings about the American West. Hillerman also provides the introduction as well as commentary throughout the anthology.

• Title Page Transcription:
  [double rule] The | BEST | of the | WEST | [rule] | An Anthology of | Classic Writing from | the American West | [rule] | Edited by | TONY HILLERMAN | [double rule] | [publisher's device] HarperCollinsPublishers
• Contents:
  [i] half title The Best of the West, [ii] blank, [iii] title page, [iv] copyright, v-xii Contents, xiii-xvi Introduction, 1-526 text, 527-528 copyright acknowledgments
• Table of Contents:
  Introduction xiii
  Part 1: In the Beginning . . .
  1. New Mexico's Myster Stone by Dixie L. Perkins
  2. The Message in the Bottle by George Winship
  3. Drake's Brass Plaque by James D. Hart
  4. The Real Manila Galleon
  5. The Long Way Home by Meriwether Lewis
  6. The Stone Thoen Found by Frank Thompson
  7. Boulders Taller than the Great Tower of Seville by Garcia Lopez de Cardenas
  8. "The Most Sublime Spectacle on Earth" by John Wesley Powell
  9. Fifty Leagues of Silver by Fray Alonso de Benevides
  10. Captain José Zúñiga's Report
  11. Are We Prisoners of War? by Zebulon Montgomery Pike
  12. The Russians in California by William A. Slacum
  Part 2: The Original Westerners
  13. Ishi, The Last One Left Alive by Theodora Kroeber
  14. The Man Who Killed the Deer by Frank Waters
  15. The Pacifist Warrior by Jack Schaefer
  16. The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday
  17. Colter's Run by H.M. Chittenden
  18. "Can You Blot Out Those Stars?" by Myron Angel
  19. "I will Fight No More Forever"
  Part 3: The Navajos
  20. The Murder of Narbona by Franc Johnson Newcomb
  21. Barboncito's Plea
  22. The Hogan by Gladys Reichard
  23. Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge
  24. The Death of Old Man Hat by Walter Dyk
  Part 4: The Hispanos
  25. The Muleteers by Max Morehead
  26. Brother's of the Light by Marta Weigle
  27. Blessing the Animals by John A. Lomax
  28. Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson
  29. A Santa Fe Fandango by George Frederick Ruxton
  Part 5: Frontier Life
  30. The Burning Bush by A.W. Whipple
  31. A Twenty-Dollar Christmas Ball by Alexander Kelly McClure
  32. Christmas in Round Valley by John Wesley Clampitt
  33. "A Rather Pretentious Sod House" by Everett Dick
  34. "Quite Discouraged and Impatient for His Death . . ." by George Yount
  35. The Bashful Trapper by Jacob Fowler
  36. "And the Skies Are Not Cloudy All Day" by Alan Bosworth
  37. The $175,000 Sack of Flour
  38. How Americans Get Ahead by William Shepherd
  39. J.C. Penney's First Day by Norman Beasley
  40. Wolf Willow by Wallace Stegner
  41. The Melting Pot by Robert Laxalt
  42. Basques in Nevada by Robert Laxalt
  43. Nails and Whiskey by Alexander Toponce
  44. Death Valley Scotty's Story by Ealanor Jordan Houston
  45. Burial Customs at Fort Pierre by Thaddeus Culbertson
  Part 6: Cowboys
  46. The Harvard Cowboy by Richard Trimble
  47. The Spree at the End of the Trail
  48. Charlie Siringo's Flirtation by Charlie Siringo
  49. "I Threw My Timid Friend a Bisquit" by Theodore Baughman
  50. The Cowboy Strike by David Dary
  51. The First Rodeos by Charles Nordhoff
  52. The Chuck Wagon by Eugene Manlove Rhodes
  53. When You Call Me That, Smile! by Owen Wister
  Part 7: Tall Tales and Practical Jokes
  54. The Traveling Stones, and Other Such Affairs by Duncan Emrich
  55. The First Jumping Frog
  56. How Trout Survive Mountain Winters
  57. "I Am Not Aware That Anyone Has Been Born Lately" by J. Ross Browne
  58. I Paint the Truth Just as It Is by J. Ross Browne
  59. The Buffalo Corral and Milking Pen by James Stevens
  60. The Greasewood Golf Course by Dick Wick Hall
  61. The Badger Fight by Bill Oden
  62. "Anything That Will Make Money"
  Part 8: Characters
  63. "Genial if Rambunctious" by Marthy "Calamity" Jane Cannary
  64. How the Ski Came to Snow Country by Robert Laxalt
  65. The Emperor of California by Josua Norton
  66. Schlatter the Healer by Agnes Morely Cleaveland
  67. Law West of the Pecos by C.L. Sonnichsen
  68. How Phoenix Got Its Name by Lawrence Clark Powell
  69. Uncle Dick Wootton by Agnes Morely Cleaveland
  70. Culture Comes to Virginia City by R.D. Miller
  Part 9: The Mines
  71. Gold Only Waiting to Be Gathered Up by Paul Horgan
  72. "Something Shining int h Bottom of the Ditch" by James W. Marshall
  73. "Men Living Like Coyotes" by J. Ross Browne
  74. Sutro's Tunnel
  75. Growing Up in Bonanza Town by John Taylor Walford
  76. Boyhood at the Chloride Flat by James K. Hastings
  77. The Sun River Stampede by Robert Vaughan
  78. The Post-Hole Banks by J. Frank Dobie
  79. There's Gems in Them Thar Hills by Randall Henderson
  Part 10: Women
  80. "A Pretty Hoorah Place" by Nannie Alderson
  81. Now the Prairie Life Begins! by Susan Shelby Magoffin
  82. The Pregnant Private by William Gilpin
  83. Great Western, the Army's Amazon by Arthur Woodward
  84. Doing the Washing by Eleanor McGovern
  85. "A Ball Put in Your Carcass" by Caroline Nichols Churchill
  86. Rags to Riches to Rags by Robert Laxalt
  87. And from Rags to Riches to Starvation by Marshall Sprague
  88. Biscuits, Coffee and Beans by Annie D. Tallent
  89. Greasy Meals, Infested with Lazy Flies by Isabella Bird
  90. Contempt of Court by Ellen Jack
  91. Goldfield Booms by Anne Ellis
  Part 11: Law and Disorder
  92. Missed Four Thousand Times by Elfego Baca
  93. The Marquis de Peralta
  94. "It Began with Wrong and Outrage" by Eugene Manlove Rhodes
  95. The Real Billy the Kid by Howard Bryan
  96. Billy's Alive, and So Is Jesse by C.L. Sonnichsen
  97. That Famous Shootout at the O.K. Corral
  98. The Soldier of Fortune by Thompson M. Turner
  99. "No Complaint Was Made Against Him" by Thompson M. Turner
  100. Taking Politics Seriously by Ralph Emerson Twitchell
  101. The Hanging Windmill by Howard Bryan
  102. More Action at the Hanging Windmill by Howard Bryan
  103. The Johnson County War by T.A. Larson
  Part 12: Travel
  104. Over the Oregon Trail by Bernard DeVoto
  105. Thus the First Mail Was Brought on Camels by Edward F. Beale
  106. Aubry's Great Ride by J. Frank Dobie
  107. "Without Any Thing to Eat but the Dead" by Virginia Reed
  108. "Goodbye, Death Valley"
  109. "Fifteen-Hundred Hats Were Lost Yearly" by Raphael Pumpelly
  110. The Great Wagon-Train Swindle by William Miles
  111. Horace Greeley's Wild Ride by Artemus Ward
  112. What the Travel Agent Doesn't Tell You by H.M. Chittenden
  113. Cold Feet
  114. A Revolver Is an Admirable Tool . . . by Sir Richard Burton
  115. The Desert Traveler's Kit by Joseph P. Allyn
  116. How Exquisitely Pleasant, How Cosy and Delightful! by James Rusling
  117. The Race for Raton Pass by James Marshall
  118. The Continent is Joined by Theodore H. Hittell
  119. They Do Not Drink, Fight, or Strike by Charles Nordhoff
  120. The Rawhide Railroad by George Estes
  121. 185 Miles in Fifteen Hours and Twenty Minutes by Alexander Majors
  122. Finally, Behind the Wheel! by Upton Sinclair
  123. Steinbeck's Highway 66 by John Steinbeck
  Part 13: The Military
  124. The Last Word from the Alamo by William Travis
  125. The Mormon Battalion by Jame Ferguson
  126. "We Have Come Amongst You" by Stephn Watts Kearny
  127. Paddy Graydon's Civil War
  128. Custers Last Letter Home by George Armstrong Custer
  129. Mrs. Custer Hears the News by Elizabeth Custer
  Part 14: The Western Way With Words
  130. "José Maria Martín! Stand Up!"
  131. "Stand Up, Ye Son-of-a-Bitch" by Walker Dixson Grisso
  132. Why Wilderness? by Ed Abbey
  133. "The Dirty Nincompoop Who Edits That Journal"
  134. "To The World!!" by James W. Nesmith
  135. "I Ask: What Is Life?" by Herman W. Knickerbocker
  Part 15: Fiction
  136. The Rules of the Game by Charles Lummis
  137. The Outcasts of Poker Flats by Bret Harte
  138. The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky by Stephen Crane
  139. Cabin Fever by Dorothy Scarborough
  140. Honey in the Horn by H.L. Davis
  141. "It Must Be Something Exciting" by Wallace Stegner
  142. McTeague by Frank Norris
• Physical Attributes:
  • Format: Paperback, 20.2 x 13.5 cm.
  • Binding: Paper covers with full color illustration. The title, editor and publisher are printed in gold on the spine.
  • Collation: [i]-xvi 1-526 527-528
  • Price: $15.00 USD, $20.00 CAN