Reading the West

This new collection makes four previously hard-to-find dime Westerns easily available to readers who wish to enrich their understanding of nineteenth-century American literature. These varied novels provide a new and important context for examining classic, widely taught authors and tell us much about nineteenth-century attitudes toward race and gender.

With an introduction that critically examines the historical and cultural background of the dime Western, a chronology of relevant background information on historical figures and events, glosses of unfamiliar terms and references, numerous illustrations, and a selected bibliography, this edition makes frequently overlooked dime Westerns readily accessible for serious study.