When the West Was Young

Bechdolt, Frederick R. (Frederick Ritchie), 1874-1Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 474K words
Chapters: 48

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.When the West Was Young by Frederick R. BechdoltAuthor: Bechdolt, Frederick R. (Frederick Ritchie), 1874-1950,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Aug 15, 2009

Editor's review

When the West Was Young is a Western work by Frederick R. Bechdolt, belonging to a vein of narrative within the American Western literary tradition. The author himself had lived in the West, and his portrayals of frontier towns, characters, and everyday scenes carry a sense of immediacy rather than being purely paper imagination. The book's value lies in presenting the adventure and character sketches common to early Western narrative, offering insight into how the "West" as understood by early twentieth-century American readers was written. The prose is accessible and the storytelling strong, making it a suitable sample for understanding popular Western literature rather than a work of strict historical scholarship. Readers should note its literary constructedness, distinguishing its dramatized treatment from historical fact; paired with a general history of the West, it yields a fuller understanding.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in popular literature of the American West
Literature enthusiasts curious about early twentieth-century Western narrative style
Casual readers who enjoy frontier adventure stories and character sketches
Beginning students studying the construction of the Western literary image

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking rigorous historical research and primary sources on the West
Readers who prefer modern literary techniques and complex narratives
Readers impatient with old-fashioned adventure story conventions

Reading tips

Read it as literature rather than as historical source material, and note its dramatized treatment.
Feel free to sample chapters first to get a sense of the character and scene writing; there is no need to read it straight through.
Pair it with a general history of the West to distinguish literary imagination from historical fact.

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.

FAQ

Is this book a work of history or of literature?

It belongs to Western-themed literary narrative. The author had lived in the West, and the descriptions carry a sense of immediacy, but the book is primarily story and character sketch rather than strict historical scholarship; readers should keep the two distinct.

Is the story suitable for young readers?

The prose is accessible and the storytelling strong, so it is generally suitable for young readers, but the violence and character stereotypes of old-fashioned Western narrative call for some adult guidance and explanation, so that they are not taken wholly as historical fact.

How difficult is the original English edition to read?

The language is early twentieth-century popular narrative English, with short sentences and common vocabulary, easier than more literary works of the same period. Readers with intermediate English proficiency can finish it comfortably with a dictionary.

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About the author

Bechdolt, Frederick R. (Frederick Ritchie), 1874-1 Author · American · 1874

Frederick R. Bechdolt (1874–?) was an American journalist and writer of adventure fiction, born in 1874. Public information about his life is limited, and only one of his works is held in this collection. In his early years he made a living in Alaska and the American West, and these experiences became important material for his later writing. His representative work, When the West Was Young, is set against the backdrop of the westward expansion era and carries a distinct frontier-adventure flavor, conveying the tension of wilderness survival and the atmosphere of the times. Drawing largely on his firsthand experience, his writing tends toward popular narrative, emphasizing plot and regional scenery. He occupies a modest place in early twentieth-century American Western adventure literature and offers popular reading that helps later generations picture life in the West and Alaska of that period.