(Pearl) Zane Grey (1872-1939) was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and pulp fiction that presented an idealized image of the rugged Old West. He became especially interested in the West in 1907, after joining a friend on an expedition to trap mountain lions in Arizona. Grey wrote steadily, but it was only in 1910, and after considerable efforts by his wife, that his first western, Heritage of the Desert, became a bestseller....

Written in the style of a short story, without excessive detail or extraneous characters, this is the story of Bud Moore, who after his wife leaves him, unknowingly gets caught up in a crazy scheme that necessitates his running for his life across the Southwest on foot, until he meets and teams up with an old prospector, Cash Markham. The tale that follows is fun, and I really enjoyed it, including the surprise ending. (Goodreads)

From the humble beginnings of a frontier army camp, Fort Worth transformed into a city as cattle drives, railroads, oil and national defense drove its economy. During the tremendous growth, the landscape and cultural imprint of the city changed drastically, and much of Cowtown was lost to history. Witness the birth of western swing music and the death of a cloud dancer. See mansions of the well-heeled and saloons of the well-armed. Meet two gunfighters,...

The lives of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow started in Texas, but their stories have become legend across the country. They, along with a band of other ne'er-do-wells from other Texas towns, grew to national infamy during the Great Depression. West Dallas's Ralph Fults smuggled hacksaw blades into jail to break out Raymond Hamilton. In Galveston, the Downtown Gang, Beach Gang, Maceo brothers and others hustled and smuggled liquor for their speakeasy...

At the close of the civil war the need for a market for the surplus cattle of Texas was as urgent as it was general. Then began the great exodus of Texas cattle. The red men were easily confined on reservations, and the vacated country in the Northwest became cattle ranges. The government was in the market for large quantities of beef with which to feed its army and Indian wards. The history of the world can show no pastoral movement in comparison....

Rev. ed.

A runaway airman, slaughters a family of three as they sleep in their beds. A single mother murders her two young sons and hides their dismembered bodies in her refrigerator. An elderly man beats his granddaughter to death with a hammer because her childish singing annoys him. Those are just three of the violent crimes that rocked Galveston in one year: 1955. Galveston, Texas, has a storied history marked by captains of industry and mafia bosses....

Braniff Airways: Flying Colors takes readers on a magical flight through the history of Braniff International Airways, beginning with its small-town Oklahoma roots to its high-flying and stylish span of the globe. Braniff brought together the mystery of aviation with the glamorous fields of fashion, art, and design, and taught the flying world how to fly with style and beauty. It is this remarkable joining of forces that has made Braniff as popular...

The distinctive high mesa straddling West Texas and Eastern New Mexico creates a vista that is equal parts sprawling lore and big blue sky. From Lubbock, the area's informal capital, to the farthest reaches of the staked plains known as the Llano Estacado, the land and its inhabitants trace a tradition of tenacity through numberless cycles of dust storms and drought. In 1887, a bison hunter observed antelope, sand crane and coyote alike crowding together...

From Jedediah Smith's final fight to an unlikely flash flood in the desert, “It Happened on the Santa Fe Trail” gives readers a unique look at intriguing people and episodes from one of America's most historically important trails, the artery that opened the Southwest to settlement. Find out how Colonel Kit Carson survived the Battle of Adobe Walls. Discover how a famous mountain man became an unlikely millionaire. And read all about how a railroad...