AMERICAN WEST

AMERICAN WEST is not the stuff of what is patronizingly referred to as the "traditional" Western. A world where it is always a few years after the Civil War and many years before the twentieth century. That was a good world, a fun world, and one that wore out its welcome in the late sixties when too many assassinations and a war that was more miserable than most convinced us that good doesn't triumph over evil.

But the evolving Western is told from many viewpoints. Viewpoints of those who don't always match our perceptions of the stereotypical "Western" male.  The story of the West is the story of blacks, Native Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Jews and Gentiles, Mormons, Catholics, and women.

It is the story of a cooling continent at the beginning of humanity and the swarming plains at the end of the millennium. It is about America. It is about life.  Whether the story's central character is a hangman or a midwife, a piano or a cowboy who hates tomatoes, you may be certain of thing. If it reflects an expanding continent, it reflects the American West.
from the editor's introduction  

 
American West : twenty new stories
 Forge, 2001.
Call #: FIC American, W
Subjects Western stories.
Short stories, American -- West (U.S.)
American fiction -- 20th century.
West (U.S.) -- Social life and customs
ISBN:  0312873174 (alk. paper)
031287281X (pbk)
Description: 367 p.

Contents:  The snows of August / Jory Sherman -- The guardians / Don Coldsmith -- A piano at Dead Man's Crossing / Johnny D. Boggs -- Mother George, midwife / Patti Sherlock -- Traveling princess / Lenore Carroll -- Requiem for Rosebud / Ken Hodgson -- Dead game man / Sally Zanjani -- The heart of the matter / Max Evans -- River watch / Lori Van Pelt -- Hewey and the wagon cook / Elmer Kelton -- A woman 49er / JoAnn Levy -- The living land / Janet E. Graebner -- The last days of Dominic Prince / Richard S. Wheeler -- The two trail ride tricksters / Riley Froh -- Laureano's wall / Mike Blakely -- Going home money / Judy Magnuson Lilly -- Thirteen coils / Loren D. Estleman -- The purification of Jim Barnes / Troy D. Smith -- Dove's song / Randy Lee Eickhoff -- Sepia sun / Deborah Morgan.
 Additional Authors: Estleman, Loren D.
Western Writers of America.

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AMERICAN WEST: Twenty New Stories from the Western Writers of America