A WORD FROM LOUIS L’AMOUR “Almost forty years ago, when my fiction was being published exclusively in ‘pulp’ western magazines, I wrote several novel-length stories, which my editors called ‘magazine novels.’ In creating them, I became so involved with my characters that their lives were still as much a part of me as I was of them long after the issues in which they appeared became collector’s items. Pleased as I was about how I brought the characters and their adventures to life in the pages of the magazines, I still wanted the reader to know more about my people and why they did what they did. So, over the years, I revised and expanded these magazine works into fuller-length novels that I published in paperback under other titles. “These particular early magazine versions of my books have long been a source of great speculation and curiosity among many of my readers, so much so of late, that I’m now pleased to collect three of them in book form for the first time. “I hope you enjoy them.”

When Louis L'Amour's fiction was first being published exclusively in "pulp" Western magazines, he wrote several novel-length stories. Three of these tales--The Trail to Crazy Man, Riders of the Dawn, and Showdown on the Hogback--are collected here in one volume for fans who relish the idea of being able to enjoy the early works of a master storyteller.

Louis L'Amour is now one of the most iconic western writers of all time, but once upon a time he was Jim Mayo, a regular writer for the pulps. And some of the stories he wrote in those days stuck with him enough that he revised and expanded them into novels."The Trail to Peach Meadow Cañon" first appeared in Giant Western in October, 1949. The text was expanded and substantially changed when it subsequently was published as an original paperback titled Son of a Wanted Man in 1984."The Trail to Crazy Man" was first published in West in July of 1948, and was later expanded into a paperback original published by Ace Books in 1954 as Crossfire Trail, and was later made into a film starring Tom Selleck. But there was a special magic to the original stories, and after research and restoration, the stories appear here in their original version.

Rafe Caradec—gambler, wanderer, soldier of fortune—was as hard a man as the battlefields and waterfronts of Latin America could fashion, but he was as good as his word. As Charles Rodney lay dying in a dank ship’s fo’c’sle, Rafe swore to make sure that Rodney’s Wyoming ranch went to his daughter, Ann. In Painted Rock, Wyoming, Caradec found land for a man to love, miles of rolling grasslands and towering mountains. He also found that one of the most ruthless men in the territory had set his sights on both Rodney’s ranch and his daughter. But Rafe Caradec had given his word, and once he’d looked deep into Ann Rodney’s eyes, nothing short of death would stop him from keeping the promise he’d made.

Louis L'Amour is now one of the most iconic Western writers of all time, but once upon a time he was Jim Mayo, a regular writer for the pulps. Some of the tales he wrote in those days stuck with him enough that he later revised and expanded them into novels. But there was a special magic to the originals, and after research and restoration, these stories appear here now in their original form. In "The Trail to Peach Meadow Canon," Mike Bastian, taken in by the legendary outlaw Ben Curry as an orphaned child and raised to one day take over his empire of crime, finds that day has come. As he prepares for his first criminal job, a gold-train robbery, Mike must decide whether to follow the path laid out before him or to carve out a destiny of his own. In the title story, Charles Rodney, shanghaied and forced into labor on a merchant vessel, eventually dies from repeated beatings-but not before deeding part of his ranch to Rafe Caradec, whom he hopes will protect his family.

Collected together for the first time are one of L'Amour's greatest novellas--"The Trail to Crazy Man"--and three stories from L'Amour's classic magazine days, all restored to their original versions. Original.

Hopalong Cassidy has received a message from the dead. Answering an urgent appeal for help from fellow cowpuncher Pete Melford, he rides in only to discover that his old friend has been murdered and the ranch Pete left to his niece, Cindy Blair, has vanished without a trace. Hopalong may have arrived too late to save Pete, but his sense of loyalty and honor demands that he find that cold-blooded killers and return to Cindy what is rightfully hers. Colonel Justin Tredway, criminal kingpin of the town of Kachina, is the owner of the sprawling Box T ranch, and he has built his empire with a shrewd and ruthless determination. In search of Pete’s killers and Cindy’s ranch, Hopalong signs on at the Box T, promising to help get Tredway’s wild cattle out of the rattler-infested brush. But in the land of mesquite and black chaparral, Cassidy confronts a mystery as hellish as it is haunting—a bloody trail that leads to the strange and forbidding Babylon plateau, to $60,000 in stolen gold, and to a showdown with an outlaw who has already cheated death once . . . and is determined to do it again.

Kate Lundy, owner of the Tumbling B, and Conn Dury, her foreman, told Tom the rules: men from the cattle drives are forbidden on the north side of town. People appreciated the money the cowboys spent but thought them too coarse to be near their homes. Enticed to come calling by Linda McDonald, daughter of one of the leading citizens, Tom Lundy broke the law and crossed the line. Later that night, he was dead. Outraged by her brother’s murder, Kate vows to destroy the entire town. But when Aaron McDonald sends east for an army of hired guns, Conn Dury and the men of the Tumbling B soon wonder if the price of Kate’s revenge is too high.