For nearly 40 years, Larry McMurtry's novels and essays have vividly portrayed the American West, exploring life on the frontier, in small western towns, and in increasingly urban stretches of what was once open country. In these 11 essays, all originally published in The New York Review of Books, Larry McMurtry brings his unique narrative gift and dry humor to a variety of western topics. The author explores James Wilson's history of Native Americans; the writers Zane Grey and Janet Lewis; the expedition of Lewis and Clark; and the myths and reality surrounding the larger-than-life figures of Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley.