LiterariLeigh

Like westerns? There is a useful website about Western Authors called Zane Grey's West Society, which includes a wide variety of categories, an index by author, articles, and additional links about westerns. Here's an interesting article about the great Zane Grey:

Why You Should Read Zane Grey by Dr. Joe Wheeler
Points West Chronicle
Spring-Summer 1996

"Zane Grey, the Western Writer, shaped the way the world will forever perceive the "Old West." Zane Grey's name on theater marquees was a bigger draw than the top Hollywood stars of his day. In 57 novels, 10 books of Western nonfiction, and 130 movies, Grey, who died in 1939 at age 67, almost singlehandedly created the "Myth of the West." His respectful treatment of Indians was ahead of its time; his word paintings of some of the worlds most spectacular country may never be equaled."

There was a Code of the West, and Ramon Adams, the Western historian, probably explained it best in his wonderful little 1969 book, The Cowman and His Code of Ethics. Adams wrote, in part:

"Back in the days when the cowman with his herds made a new frontier, there was no law on the range. Lack of written law made it necessary for him to frame some of his own, thus developing a rule of behavior which became known as the "Code of the West." These homespun laws, being merely a gentleman's agreement to certain rules of conduct for survival, were never written into statues, but were respected everywhere on the range.

When legislated laws did come to the frontier they failed to meet the needs and conditions on this fringe of civilization. Men did not respect them because they could not obey them and survive. Thus the West gained a reputation for being lawless though the blame for this condition should have been placed upon the white-collared law makers, not upon the so-called law breakers."