Lone Cowboy: My Life Story

This is a book I read when I was about 15, and enjoyed reading it again. Basically a book for teens or young adults, the story covers Will James from childhood to adult, written exactly as if he were speaking. This gives the story a basis of reality and makes it a story from around a camp fire.

I first read an original copy of this book, in my late mother's library (she was our village librarian), in the mid-70's...and re-read it many times over, since then. It is a candid, entertaining view of life in the fading days of the wild west, and western life at the turn of the 20th century. The stories with which James' regales his reader come alive on the page, with the voice of a real cowboy. Reading Lone Cowboy, is like sitting around a campfire on the range, having a cowboy tell you stories in the firelight. Added to its charm, are Will James' own original pen drawings, which make the tales spring to life, all the more. Although in reality, this is actually a work of fiction--despite what the uninformed will say, it's still well worth reading. Will James isn't the author's real name, he wasn't born in the west, but is French-Canadian, having been born in a small town outside of Montreal, Canada, in 1892. He changed his name and his place of birth (several times over) only when coming to the west. His name became Bill James, when he crossed the border into Montana, later changing it to Will James upon becoming a published author. However, don't let this knowledge put you off: James' was a real cowboy! He jumped off a train and learned his trade at the age of 15, at a working cattle ranch in western Canada. He was always interested in art, and studied at the School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and also, believe it or not, breifly attended Yale University! He also was a rodeo cowboy, a broc buster, a convicted cattle rustler (he served 15 months in a Nevada prison for it), a probable horse theif, movie stuntman, artist-illustrator and a rancher. Two of his books made it into film, including Smokey the Cowhorse, which was filmed three times--last in 1966, starring "Daniel Boone" and "Davy Crockket" TV star, Fess Parker. Will James died alone and penniless, of cirrosis of the liver, in a hospital in Hollywood CA, in 1942.

This is a favorite from childhood. It's a good novel to get a picture of what a cowboy's daily life and background were truly like in the period of U.S.history when ranches were a big part of the western scene. The sketches by James add much charm.

Independance is riding a Wyoming ridgeline on Christmas eve in a blizzard,catching the lights of a remote cabin in the valley below,and deciding whether or not to ride down to the cabin,based soley on how badly you think that you really need a cup of coffee.Will James is the "Lone Cowboy"in this turn of the century autobiography of the life of a drifter who roams from Mexico to Canada in search of ranch work.Abandoned as an infant,James was raised by a French Canadian trapper who provide equal doses of love and sink or swim trials.James fills the many lonely and isolated hours of his youth with drawing.The book contains many of James's illustrations of cowboy life and particularly beautiful renditions of his favorite subject,horses.A simple cowboy tale to most,this story will, to some readers ,provide a moving testimony to the spirit of courage,stubborness,independance that characterized the itinerent cowpokes of the old west.A wonderful book for young readers who will love the early stories about trapping,camping and getting that first horse.All will enjoy the beautiful artwork that so effectively illustrates the storyline.This sensitive story,told by the roughest of men, will provide a moving experience for all readers.