The Log of a Cowboy: A Narrative of the Old Trail Days

Adams, Andy, 1859-1935Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.2
Word count
534K words
Chapters
54

Tags

English Originals Documentary Literature Wilderness SurvivalCattle DriveAdventureFrontier CamaraderieGrowing UpDocumentary NarrativePioneering YearsAmerican FrontierWestern CowboyWestern Region Flavor

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Log of a Cowboy: A Narrative of the Old Trail Days by Andy AdamsAuthor: Adams, Andy, 1859-1935,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 1, 2004

Editor's review

Written in the voice of a participant, Andy Adams's cowboy narrative is regarded as one of the most reliable literary records of the old cattle-trail days. The author himself took part in long cattle drives, so his descriptions of herding, river crossings, weather, camp life, and the division of labor among cowboys are concrete and restrained, with little of the exaggerated romance common to later popular Westerns. The book proceeds as a log-style narrative, steady in pace and dense in detail, suited to readers interested in nineteenth-century American Western social history, the livestock industry, and working life. Read it as a firsthand account with literary texture: note both the makeup and daily order of the driving crew and the narrator's observations of land and animals along the way. For students of the nonfiction tradition in American Western literature, it offers a realistic counterpoint to popular Western fiction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read in stages by the phases of the journey, noting the route and seasonal changes of the drive from start to finish.
  2. Jot down details about the cowboys' division of labor, camp rules, and herd management as you go, building your own index of observations.
  3. Read alongside popular Western fiction to appreciate the difference between realistic narrative and legendary treatment.
  4. Those interested in places and routes may read with a historical map of the American West at hand.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
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  11. 11
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  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
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  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
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  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a work of nonfiction? It is generally regarded as a narrative based on the author's own experience driving cattle, with a clear character of a firsthand account. The characters and events are organized with literary craft, but the details are rooted in the actual working life of the old cattle trails, so the book has both documentary value and literary readability.
Why is it said to differ from common Western stories? Popular Westerns tend to favor gunfights, raids, and heroic legend, whereas this book focuses on the daily labor of the driving crew, herd management, river crossings, and camp life. The narration is restrained and the details concrete, presenting the ordinary reality of Western livestock work rather than dramatized adventure.
Do I need to know American Western history before reading? Systematic knowledge is not necessary, though some familiarity with the basic background of nineteenth-century American long-distance cattle driving helps. The book's account of routes, seasons, and the organization of the driving crew is self-contained, so general readers can enter directly; with brief historical background, its place in history is easier to grasp.

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About the author

Adams, Andy, 1859-1935 Author

Andy Adams (1859–1935) was a writer whose work centers on American Western ranch and cattle-driving life; public information about the details of his life is limited. He is best known for The Log of a Cowboy: A Narrative of the Old Trail Days, which recounts life on the old cattle trails in the voice of a firsthand witness. Six of his works are included here, among them The Outlet, Cattle Brands: A Collection of Western Camp-Fire Stories, Reed Anthony, Cowman: An Autobiography, Wells Brothers: The Young Cattle Kings, and A Texas Matchmaker. These works mostly deal with cowboys, ranch management, and Texas border life, and are plain and realistic in style, often told through diary or memoir-like narration. They thus hold a place in Western literature and offer vivid material for later readers seeking to understand the old cattle industry.