Showing results by author "Max Brand" in All Categories

The son of a notorious outlaw is adopted into a wealthy, law-abiding family as an infant after his father is killed in an attempted robbery. Will he follow in the footsteps of his outlaw father or will his life be guided by the respectable woman who nurtured him to manhood? Another exciting tale by the master of the pulp western, Max Brand.

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].

Steven Train is and has long been a thief and card sharp. He has gone by other names. He is sought out by another crook, John Ranier, with a proposal. Rainer saved a rich rancher, Patrick Comstock, from serious injury and was rewarded with an easy job, working for Comstock. Rainer tells Steve Train that Comstock is looking for an honest man who is also adept with firearms to undertake a very dangerous and responsible mission. Comstock has asked Ranier to help find such a man.

He went by the name of Speedy. Some called him a tramp - and others called him worse. Speedy was a young con man who knew the fastest way to a rich man's wallet and a pretty girl's heart.

To Speedy, Durfee didn't look any different from a hundred other towns he'd seen before. There were fat bankers waiting for his smooth talk, and lovely young ladies ready to swoon over his smile and his guitar playing. But this time the charming trickster was about to meet his match - in a girl out to steal his heart!

Notorious outlaw Lawrence Grey has been captured near El Paso. Marshal Neilan has a proposal for him. Neilan will set Grey free if he tries to locate John Ray, a man who was last known to be living in San Vicente, Mexico. The men Neilan sent previously have disappeared or quit the job....

The Red Well is called that by Jerry Finnegan when the water in the well on his ranch turns that color. Finnegan asks Charlie Kimball to help him defend the ranch and protect his wife Sarah andyoung son from the threat of death by Slade and his gang. Slade wants the ranch and will murderto get it if Finnegan refuses to sell. For Charlie Kimball the reason driving Slade can only be thered water in the well.

This is a story of a wild horse who many said could not be caught or broken, and the man who set out to prove them wrong.

The Untamed is a pioneering Wild West novel. Whistlin' Dan Barry is the hero, with his black stallion Satan and wolf dog Black Bart. The villain and leader of the gang of thugs, Jim Silent, is a thief, a killer, and a liar. He kidnaps Whistlin’ Dan’s adopted father and the woman he loves, and then war ensues, with a riveting end to the thugs.

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.

Winsor Glanvil pays court to Louise Carney, heiress to a fortune, and she agrees to marry him. The marriage is opposed by big Jack Rutledge, a jealous rival and formidable foe, so Glanvil and Louise plan to be married in a sequestered valley by a local clergyman. Rutledge and his supporters, learning of the plan, arrive in the valley ahead of the two and seize Glanvil. Glanvil is beaten mercilessly and Rutledge disfigures him, destroying one side of his face with the cutting edge of a spur. Rutledge then rejoins his gang in the clergyman’s house.

Terry Shawn was a kind-hearted outlaw. He took from the rich and gave to the poor and while doing so, stole the heart of a beautiful young woman. Infuriated lawmen could never catch up with him. But deep in one secluded valley lived an older man with such a haunted past, he chose the solitude of a wild mountain range to find peace for his troubled soul. From this man named Shannon, Terry came to know the real meaning of honesty and friendship.

Jim Conover possessed the reputation of a man fast with a gun. But if he had to depend on that quickness today, he would be a dead man. The marvelous deftness of that right hand is gone, ruined in a dynamite explosion. And now he is a respected man working as a prospector.

Dick Rutherford, known simply as the Colonel, had set out into the West to find his fortune, accompanied only by his young companion, Christy Deever. But it looked like the frontier would provide more danger than money...until the Colonel and Christy met Stone-That-Shines, a Mandan warrior who possessed a medicine stone that gave him his name. As soon as the Colonel got a close look at the medicine stone, he knew immediately what made it shine — a rich vein of quartz gold.

When Ronicky Doone arrives in Twin Springs, he finds himself in the midst of a deadly feud between two rival families. The stakes are high - honor, revenge, and rich ranch land. Though the townsmen favor the Jenkinses, Ronicky is drawn to the Bennetts - and especially the beautiful Elsie Bennett. As the struggle builds up in violence and shifting alliances, only Ronicky has the power to restore the peace.

Max Brand is the name by which American author Frederick Faust is best known and loved. His fiction has been proclaimed vital reading for the development of the short story in American literature. Three of his stories appear together in audiobook form: "Alec the Great", "Riding into Peril", and "Outlaws All".

James Geraldi is one of the most legendary thieves in the West. But he is not an ordinary thief, preying on the unwitting and defenseless. James Geraldi is a very exclusive thief, stealing only from other thieves. From the largest towns to the loneliest outposts of the desert his name is known, but few could identify him, although many an honest rancher or townsman has become a loyal friend when Geraldi rescued their savings, and many a bandit has been conned or bested by him.

Rusty Sabin was a child when Cheyenne Indians raided the Sabin homestead and killed his mother. Just before she died, she put a rawhide cord with a green scabbard around his neck. Raised by Spotted Antelope and Bitter Root, Rusty, now known as Red Hawk, refuses the compulsory and brutal initiation into the tribe when he is 15. Abandoned as dead by his Cheyenne family, Red Hawk takes the advice of a white trader and rides to Witherell, the nearest settlement of whites.

The day Jingo rode into Tower Creek, the town was busy celebrating its 20th anniversary. The big event of the festival was a high-stakes poker game in Joe Slade's saloon with Wally Rankin holding most of the chips. But it didn't take long for Jingo to figure out why: Rankin was cheating. And it would only take a couple of well-placed bullets to reveal it to the others in the room.

Lew's skill with firearms gets him a job as a hunter with a trader heading onto the prairies to barter with the Indians. There he meets young Chuck Morris, and together they take on a Cheyenne attack party. Finding shelter in a Sioux village, they absorb the native culture. Lew comes to know the great Sioux chieftains, becoming blood brothers with Sitting Wolf, while Chuck marries the beautiful maiden Zintcallasappa.

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.