Showing results by author "Max Brand" in All Categories

Tom Fuller - a scrupulously honest fellow, a person of extraordinary physical strength, and owner of a savage horse, Rusty, that he alone was able to tame - is generally regarded as a half-wit. He has been summarily fired from every job he has ever had and even comes to regard himself as a failure. He makes one more try when he is hired on as a blacksmith's assistant by Boston Charlie. Finally here is a job that Tom can perform successfully, and his spirit soars.

Alfred Larribee is sent by his father to live with his cousin’s family in the West. Larribee proves to be lazy and shiftless…spending most of his time in town…drinking and gambling…even cheating at cards. What changes all this is the appearance of Sky Blue…a magnificent stallion that has never been ridden. Dan Gurry is the owner and hopes to find a cowboy who can ride Sky Blue…but the first one to try is seriously injured. After that no one is willing to volunteer to try again except Larribee.

Tom Dallas has changed his way of living. All the shootings in which he was involved were justified, but there are many who want his scalp which prompts him to make a vow that he will not pack bullets in his .45 for a year. Then a situation develops that can only result in breaking his vow.

Werewolf by Max Brand in Western Story Magazine (12/18/26) involves just such an inward journey for Christopher Royal, who is convinced he is a coward and flees a confrontation with Harry Main, who is a gunfighter. There comes a time in this story - when Christopher encounters the aged Indian, the old wise man - that the terrain shimmers with the multiple affinities of meaning conjured by the unconscious, which Vergil once sought to capture within an image both awesome and sinister: numina magna deum [the great divine power of a god].

Black Jack by Max Brand is a gripping Western novel centered around the infamous outlaw, Black Jack, a man of complex morals and a mysterious past. Set against the rugged backdrop of the American West, the story follows Black Jack's attempts to escape his past while facing relentless lawmen and rival criminals. With his keen wit and unmatched gunfighting skills, he navigates a world filled with danger, betrayal, and redemption. The novel delves into themes of justice, honor, and the struggle between a man’s destiny and his desire for freedom, making it a thrilling and action-packed read. ...

The lure of the American West is in the spirit of adventure, in the majestic expanse of unconquered wilderness and in rugged individuals on a quest for identity and sometimes for survival. Owen Wister's unsmiling Virginian... Dorothy M. Johnson's, "A Man Called Horse": These are a few of the colorful, even legendary characters who populate The American West in Fiction, a collection of stories edited by Jon Tuska.

When Harry French left home he was just another kid looking to make his way. But when he comes back four years later, things are different. He's different. Or at least the town thinks so. Now nobody looks him in the eye. He isn't just Harry anymore, he's the Shifter, a gunfighter who brings trouble with him wherever he goes. And as hard as Harry tries, he finds that a reputation is a lot harder to put down than a gun.

He swept down from the north like a cold blast from hell. His name was Red Pierre and he was riding a vengeance trail.

They said the man he hunted couldn't be beat. But six years of riding outlaw with a wolf-pack left him with a burning hate and a taste for blood.

Now he was going to get the man who shot his father. But he'd need more than hate and a gun. What he really needed was the help of a good woman.

Every fall Tom Reynard, ramrod for the Bar L, had a hard time finding cowpunchers willing to work the winter range in the bleak badlands near the Sioux reservation. So when Jigger Bunts, an 18-year-old from New York who was familiar with riding and roping, happened along, he was hired even though his youth was a red flag to Reynard. To pass the time in the bunkhouse, the other cowhands spin tall tales for Bunts, whom they call the kid, about the exploits of Reynard, and soon Reynard becomes Bunts' hero and role model.

A collection of classic Western tales including From Missouri by Zane Grey, Over the Northern Border by Max Brand and Riders of the Dawn by Louis L'Amour.

Versatility was a key talent of author Frederick Faust using the pseudonym Max Brand. What you’re about to hear is one of his lesser known stories that ranks as a prime example of his stupendous ability.

John Scovil had brought his daughter out west to snap her out of her lethargy, but nothing he did could stir her interest in the wild surroundings. Deciding a staged kidnapping might awaken her spirit, he hires a handsome young rogue to abduct her to the mountains. But they both get more than they bargained for when his pretty daughter's spirit wakes up indeed - with a thirst for action and adventure.

Alcatraz is classic Western from one of the masters of the genre. It's the story of a wild horse many said could not be caught or broken and the man who set out to prove them wrong. Added to the mix, there's danger, betrayal, heroes and villains, and romance.

"The Seventh Man" (1921) is a unique western novel with well-sketched characters by Max Brand. Excerpt: "A man under thirty needs neighbors; and to stop up the current of his life with a long silence is like obstructing a river - eventually the water either sweeps away the dam or rises over it, and the stronger the dam the more destructive is that final rush to freedom. Vic Gregg was on the danger side of thirty and he lived alone in the mountains all that winter.

The Jericho mountain race - five hundred miles of spongy desert sand and impossible rocks and mountain cliffs. It takes a special breed of man, riding a very special horse, to win that grueling contest. Colonel Robert Dinsmore knows he has the horse that can do it - Crusader, a magnificent black stallion. Master storyteller, Texas-born and raised Barry Corbin, horseman, rancher, and star of the hit TV series Northern Exposure reads this classic Western story by Max Brand.

Barney Dwyer was so strong that he broke almost every farm tool he touched. Finally his hot-tempered ranch-owning boss, Dan Peary, lost his patience and fired him. Barney was told to collect the remaining few dollars of his wages from Peary's son, Len, who had joined a tough gang of gunslingers in the mountain town of Timberline. Almost from the first hour, Barney made enemies in Timberline. Violent confrontations would send Barney on a long bloody trail.

Anthony Woodbury, strong, athletic, constantly in pursuit of another challenge, is the son of a New York millionaire. Now he is faced with a most difficult challenge. His millionaire father is murdered and Anthony goes West in search of the person who did the killing. An expert marksman and rider, Anthony is well-suited to the West and capable of self-defense. Not only does he discover who the killer is, he also uncovers a mysterious history regarding his mother and father. But Anthony soon learns that he, the hunter, is also the hunted...

It was a fool thing to do, but Jack Trainor did it. In order to help keep his sister's husband from going to jail for robbery, Jack agrees to ride out on the getaway horse, drawing suspicions away from his brother-in-law and onto himself. But eluding the posse that follows him in hot pursuit turns out to be much harder than Jack had thought. And he was not prepared to survive the winter in the Canadian wilderness.

When Samuel Cross was growing up, he was rarely found without a book in his hands and that was the way his mother, a widow, wanted him raised. His uncle, Stephen Larkin, a frontiersman like Sam's father, wanted him to be strong and able to fend for himself, so he would take him into the mountains every summer to teach him how to fight and use a weapon. He proved to be as adept at these subjects as he had been at book learning.

Lew Sherry and Pete Lang accept an offer they simply can't resist. Oliver Wilton is willing to pay the cowboys $1,000 a day for ten days to protect him from danger that has him living in a state of terror. A seafaring man has arrived at the inn in town and has made no secret of the fact that he's come to settle a score with Wilton.