Best of the West [Hardcover]

Joe R. Lansdale (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

These 13 short stories, one poem and one teleplay assembled by editor Lansdale reinvigorate one of the central images of our culturethe West. Each of these stories is an original and jointly all succeed because their writers create a sense of place, whether it is a mud flats whorehouse, a train depot, dry prairie or rickety ranch, its owner bedeviled by falling cattle prices. Additionally, hard, clear prose animates each of these narratives, wherein character is alway pitted and tested against a hostile environment either of wilderness or law. Lansdale provides a telling introduction about the state of literature and the West and inserts succinct prefaces of each writer's past accomplishments. Readers who thrive on Louis L'Amour's romances will find this anthology exciting and those who admire Doctorow's Welcome to Hard Times will find it as innovative. (December 12
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 178 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (December 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038523256X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385232562
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,949,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over thirty novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers, and Internet sites. His work has been collected in eighteen short-story collections, and he has edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies. He has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others. His novella Bubba Hotep was adapted to film by Don Coscarelli, starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. His story "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" was adapted to film for Showtime's "Masters of Horror." He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.