There's no such thing as safe passage in this western in Ralph Compton's USA Today bestselling series. Ben McCullough was once an officer in the Confederate Army. Now, he’s a rancher in the Texas hill country, hoping to earn enough money to settle down and marry. With eight hundred head of cattle to drive north, Ben is relying on his ex-sergeant, Hap, to watch over the bunch of greenhorns he’s recruited to help. These young cowboys have their work cut out for them as they confront the dangers of cattle driving. But stampedes, raging rivers, and nature’s worst elements are nothing compared to the threat that awaits them—a gang of outlaws determined to rustle the herd… More Than Six Million Ralph Compton Books In Print!

More information to be announced soon on this forthcoming title from Penguin USA

Three kids venture to the North Pole to help Santa defeat an army of evil elves in this holiday classic from the brilliant mind that brought you The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Art Atchinson Aimesworth—inventor, crime fighters, and all-around whiz kid—journeys north with his sister, Esther, and his pal Spaulding, by special invitation from Santa himself. Why did Santa call them to the North Pole? Art wants to know. But when Esther is taken by the Queen of the Dark Elves, Art must put his questions aside and save his sister. This reissue of William Joyce’s epic Christmas adventure now comes complete with lift-the-flap letters from Santa himself!

How did cattle drives come about—and why did the cowboy become an iconic American hero? Cattle drives were the largest, longest, and ultimately the last of the great forced animal migrations in human history. Spilling out of Texas, they spread longhorns, cowboys, and the culture that roped the two together throughout the American West. In cities like Abilene, Dodge City, and Wichita, buyers paid off ranchers, ranchers paid off wranglers, and railroad lines took the cattle east to the packing plants of St. Louis and Chicago. The cattle drives of our imagination are filled with colorful cowboys prodding and coaxing a line of bellowing animals along a dusty path through the wilderness. These sturdy cowhands always triumph over stampedes, swollen rivers, and bloodthirsty Indians to deliver their mighty-horned companions to market—but Tim Lehman’s Up the Trail reveals that the gritty reality was vastly different. Far from being rugged individualists, the actual cow herders were itinerant laborers—a proletariat on horseback who connected cattle from the remote prairies of Texas with the nation’s industrial slaughterhouses. Lehman demystifies the cowboy life by describing the origins of the cattle drive and the extensive planning, complicated logistics, great skill, and good luck essential to getting the cows to market. He reveals how drives figured into the larger story of postwar economic development and traces the complex effects the cattle business had on the environment. He also explores how the premodern cowboy became a national hero who personified the manly virtues of rugged individualism and personal independence. Grounded in primary sources, this absorbing book takes advantage of recent scholarship on labor, race, gender, and the environment. The lively narrative will appeal to students of Texas and western history as well as anyone interested in cowboy culture.

While driving cattle up north, former Confederate Army officer-turned-rancher Ben McCullough and his ex-sergeant Hap encounter such perils as stampedes, raging waters, nature's fury, and a gang of vicious rustlers. Original.

The Old Chisholm Trail charts the evolution of the major Texas cattle trails, explores the rise of the Chisholm Trail in legend and lore, and analyzes the role of cattle trail tourism long after the end of the trail driving era itself. The result of years of original and innovative research—often using documents and sources unavailable to previous generations of historians—Wayne Ludwig’s groundbreaking study offers a new and nuanced look at an important but short-lived era in the history of the American West. Controversy over the name and route of the Chisholm Trail has persisted since before the dust had even settled on the old cattle trails. But the popularity of late nineteenth-century Wild West shows, dime novels, and twentieth-century radio, movie, and television western drama propelled the already bygone era of the cattle trail into myth—and a lucrative one at that. Ludwig correlates the rise of automobile tourism with an explosion of interest in the Chisholm Trail. Community leaders were keenly aware of the potential economic impact if tourists were induced to visit their town rather than another, and the Chisholm Trail was often just the hook needed. Numerous “historical” markers were erected on little more than hearsay or boosterish memory, and as a result, the true history of the Chisholm Trail has been overshadowed. The Old Chisholm Trail is the first comprehensive examination of the Chisholm Trail since Wayne Gard’s 1954 classic study, The Chisholm Trail, and makes an important—and modern—contribution to the history of the American West. Winner, 2018 Elmer Kelton Book of the Year, sponsored by the Academy of Western Artists​

A study of the changes initiated into the systems and culture of the plain dwellers

The first settler to make permanent residence in the Abilene area arrived in 1856. From the humble beginnings of a prairie dugout, Abilene grew to be the first "cowtown" of the West. Joseph G. McCoyset up his stockyards in Abilene, and millions of cattle were driven up from Texas via the Chisholm Trail and shipped out on Union Pacific railcars. Abilene exploded into one of the wildest towns in the West. Several sheriffs tried to tame it, including Wild Bill Hickok, but gentrification came in the form of bankers and businessmen. During World War II , hometown hero Dwight D. Eisenhower led the Allies to victory and eventually became the 34th president of the United States. Today, Abilene plays host to thousands of visitors from around the world and celebrates its rich western heritage with the Chisholm Trail Day festival.