The Log of a Cowboy: A Narrative of the Old Trail Days

Jack Schaeffer and Elmore Leonard whetted my appetite for Westerns of high calibre, though I'll admit to suffering withdrawal symptoms subsequent to the death of the former and Mr Leonard's relinquishment of themes Arizonan. Whilst I look forward with keen anticipation to the eventual publication of Elmore Leonard's erstwhile uncollected Western stories, in recent years my disappointment with the present dearth of quality Westerns has been alleviated somewhat by three books of tremendous vitality that share a very similar, almost primitive, first person narrative voice. TRUE GRIT by Charles Portis, I've mentioned before and I'll enthuse about this book till I'm blue in the face. The other two books are stories by men who actually lived that long-vanished western life. "Andy Adams' LOG OF A COWBOY says the blurb on the book jacket, "is the classic account of life on the great trail drives of the old American West . . . from the southwest tip of Texas up to the Canadian frontier in northerm Montana." That's U.S. 83 to twentieth century man - the Road to Nowhere, as it's ruefully known. And the third book in this trilogy of true toughness is Leroy Judson Daniels TALES OF AN OLD HORSE TRADER (as told to Helen S. Herrick). Again, I quote from the blurb: "When Daniels was born, the United States was younger than he is now. His life, lived mostly in Iowa between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers . . . spans the era of the nation's growth across the continent . . ." Epic fare indeed -well, at least until Ol' Elmore climbs back in the saddle

Andy Adams was a prolific writer, and thanks to the University of Nebraska Press, some of this former cowboy's output is still in print. This true-to-life story of an 1882 cattle drive is his best known, and its retelling 100 years later in Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" is evidence of its importance among early works of Western fiction.Here the protagonist is a young cowboy much like the author, who trailed beef from Texas to Montana at a time just after the buffalo herds were being extinguished from the short grass prairies and homesteading had not yet fenced in the high plains. Oklahoma was still "Indian Territory," Little Big Horn was a recent memory, and Native Americans were in the last shameful stages of being forced off the open rangeland. The railroads were snaking across the land making frontier boom towns where law and order either prevailed (Dodge) or more often did not (Ogallala), and the vast cattle herds of Texas and Mexico finally had a market and access to it. Adams was born into this world and as a young man cowboyed during the height of the cattle drive era. His book is an account of one trek, delivering 3,000 head of cattle to the Blackfoot Agency in northern Montana. For the protagonist, the initial excitement wears off once the daily routine is established, and besides the occasional stampede and wet weather, the highlights of the journey are brief visits to the cowtowns they pass along the way and the many river crossings, some of which pose enormous difficulties.We get to know all the men in the outfit by name, and a few stand out, including Flood the foreman, McCann the cook, and the protagonist's trail mate The Rebel, who is older and wiser and something of a mentor. Other personalities emerge, primarily around the campfire on nights when the men get to swapping stories. And Adams passes on a lot of first-hand knowledge about trailing cattle, riding horses, and the day-to-day operation of a drive. Days and nights of the routine are punctuated by episodes of another kind: a rigged horse race, in which the cowboys lose several hundred dollars in wagers, two saloon shootings, the breakdown of the chuck wagon, pulling cattle out of a boggy river, meeting potentially hostile Indians, an encounter with cattle thieves, and a long drive across a waterless expanse of Wyoming.Reproduced from the original edition published in 1903, the text has an old fashioned look and feel that suit the subject matter and the prose style well. There are also five illustrations. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed "Lonesome Dove." Adams captures the excitement and the reality of the old West before it was romanticized and mythologized by the movies and popular fiction. As companion volumes, I would recommend Ramon Adams' "Cowboy Lingo" and "Come an' Get It," which provide much informative background on open range cowboying. With a good road atlas at hand, you're also able to follow the track of the drive across six western states,

This book is a lot of fun to read, taking the reader back in time to a late-1800s cattle drive from Texas to Montana. The book is written well with spare prose, wit and exceptional details about a cowboy's often difficult and sometimes boring life on the trail. There's refreshingly little of the syrup found in so many western stories. It's written simply enough for pre-teens interested in the west, yet it will yield a lot of enjoyment for the seasoned reader.