Historical Dictionary of Westerns in Literature is an installment in Scarecrow’s Historical Dictionaries of Language and the Arts series. Author Varner, professor of English at Abilene Christian University in Texas, has previously edited Westerns: Paperback Novels and Movies from Hollywood (Cambridge Scholars, 2007) and authored the Historical Dictionary of Westerns in Cinema (Scarecrow, 2008). Varner has followed the standard structure ... Read moreof the series and includes a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography in addition to the alphabetically arranged entries....As with other books in this series, the bibliography is a valuable resource for researchers, including as it does primary sources (the westerns), critical and theoretical approaches to westerns, historical studies of westerns, casebooks of criticism, and biographical and critical studies of individual authors. This work is recommended for academic and large public libraries.
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Western novels often are dismissed as serious literature. While many Westerns do indeed consist of predictable plots and cardboard characters from the Old West, this book by Varner (Abilene Christian Univ.) offers a historical and literary context that convincingly broadens readers understanding of, and appreciation for, a surprisingly diverse and sophisticated body of work. Although the first classic Western, Owen Wister's The Virginian, was published in 1902, a detailed chronology begins much earlier in 1682 with publication of a captivity narrative. These narratives and other precursors to Westerns are referenced in entries such as "Pre-Westerns," but the focus of this dictionary is on classic Westerns and their contemporary descendants, including "antimyth Westerns" and "alternative Westerns." Hundreds of entries range from authors, titles, and series to new trends, stock characters, themes, criticism, and historical events. Although far from comprehensive (e.g., no entry appears for Western Story Magazine), this book, as Varner indicates, is not intended as exhaustive. Rather, it is a source that "suggests areas of importance" and "points to significant people, novels, themes and critical issues." An extensive bibliography provides title lists for major authors and resources for further study....Varner is also the author of The Historical Dictionary of Westerns in Cinema in the same series. Summing Up: Recommended.
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Most of us today are probably more familiar with Westerns on the screen than in print, and this book is a useful corrective in shedding light on the books that often underlie the films.
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