Historical dictionary of westerns in literature /

Western novels often are dismissed as serious literature. While many Westerns do indeed consist of predictable plots and cardboard characters from the Old West, this book by Varner (Abilene Christian Univ.) offers a historical and literary context that convincingly broadens readers understanding of, and appreciation for, a surprisingly diverse and sophisticated body of work. Although the first classic Western, Owen Wister's The Virginian, was published in 1902, a detailed chronology begins much earlier in 1682 with publication of a captivity narrative. These narratives and other precursors to Westerns are referenced in entries such as "Pre-Westerns," but the focus of this dictionary is on classic Westerns and their contemporary descendants, including "antimyth Westerns" and "alternative Westerns.. Hundreds of entries range from authors, titles, and series to new trends, stock characters, themes, criticism, and historical events. Although far from comprehensive (e.g., no entry appears for Western Story Magazine), this book, as Varner indicates, is not intended as exhaustive. Rather, it is a source that "suggests areas of importance" and "points to significant people, novels, themes and critical issues.. An extensive bibliography provides title lists for major authors and resources for further study. The book's recent publication date and its focus on popular Westerns distinguish it from the Encyclopedia of Frontier and Western Fiction, edited by J. Tuska and V. Piekarski (CH, Oct'83). Varner is also the author of The Historical Dictionary of Westerns in Cinema in the same series. Summing Up: Recommended. Public libraries and most academic libraries; lower-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty, and general readers. M. L. Thomas Illinois Wesleyan University

Historical Dictionary of Westerns in Literature is an installment in Scarecrow's Historical Dictionaries of Language and the Arts series. Author Varner, professor of English at Abilene Christian University in Texas, has previously edited Westerns: Paperback Novels and Movies from Hollywood (Cambridge Scholars, 2007) and authored the Historical Dictionary of Westerns in Cinema (Scarecrow, 2008). Varner has followed the standard structure of the series and includes a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography in addition to the alphabetically arranged entries. Although most entries are short, some (Brand,Max; L'Amour, Louis; The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains) extend for several pages. The introduction, which describes the development of westerns as a genre, works with the chronology to provide users with a basic background of the field. The chronology takes readers from the 1682 captivity narrative of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson to the publication of Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage, in 1912, to the formation of the Western Literature Association in 1966 and the death of mass-market writer William W. Johnstone in 2004. The bibliography includes a short introductory essay explaining the development of criticism for a genre that was originally considered to have no literary merit. This volume is a useful complement for larger works that include coverage of American western writers, such Gale's Dictionary of Literary Biography series. As with other books in this series, the bibliography is a valuable resource for researchers, including as it does primary sources (the westerns), critical and theoretical approaches to westerns, historical studies of westerns, casebooks of criticism, and biographical and critical studies of individual authors. This work is recommended for academic and large public libraries.--Crosser, Cynthia Copyright 2010 Booklist