Elmore Leonard: Westerns (LOA #308)

Library of America presents a definitive collection of classic Westerns by America’s master modern crime writer

One of the great storytellers of our time, Elmore Leonard perfected his craft writing Westerns, a genre he loved. These tales–some adapted into such outstanding films as Hombre, Valdez Is Coming, and 3:10 to Yuma–are unexcelled for their wiry tautness, sharp characterizations, and jolts of unexpected humor. For sheer stripped-down narrative tension Leonard never did anything better, and the fresh twists he finds in resolving the genre’s classic confrontations reveal a master at work. Whether describing a Civil War veteran coming back to find his homestead stolen (Last Stand at Saber River), a man raised by Apaches treated with contempt by the white settlers who will ultimately depend on him for their survival (Hombre), a local constable, tricked into killing an innocent man, fighting back against the powerful man who duped him (Valdez Is Coming), or two convicts in a desert prison–one African American and the other half-Apache–plotting a near-impossible escape (Forty Lashes Less One), Leonard’s westerns are tough, suspenseful, convincing, and beautifully spare in style.

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.