Max Brand

Prolific writer of Westerns Max Brand is credited with helping to popularize the genre and define some its key characteristics. The novel Alcatraz is a perfect example of what Max Brand excelled at, bringing together interesting characters, a tightly plotted storyline, a deep reverence for the landscape, and plenty of thrilling action.

At the age of six Randall Byrne could name and bound every state in the Union and give the date of its admission; at nine he was conversant with Homeric Greek and Caesar; at twelve he read Aristophanes with perfect understanding of the allusions of the day and divided his leisure between Ovid and Horace; at fifteen, wearied by the simplicity of Old English and Thirteenth Century Italian, he dipped into the history of Philosophy and passed from that, naturally, into calculus and the higher mathematics; at eighteen he took an A. B. from Harvard and while idling away a pleasant summer with Hebrew and Sanscrit he delved lightly into biology and its kindred sciences, having reached the conclusion that Truth is greater than Goodness or Beauty, because it comprises both, and the whole is greater than any of its parts; at twenty-one he pocketed his Ph. D. and was touched with the fever of his first practical enthusiasm-surgery.

After ten years of wandering, during which he has lived the life of a gambler and learned the ways of devious men, Tom Keene returns home, only to find his father alone and dying. Old John Keene's sole legacy to his son is a Bible, so with his father's passing, Tom Keene renounces his selfish, worthless past and sets out to preach to others that the greatest happiness is born of trust in one another. Tom gets a chance to demonstrate his new way of life when he rescues a little girl who has fallen into a well. He learns that the little girl comes from the country's wealthiest family, now in financial straits. The family's head, John Carver, is an improvident man who is at times cruel to his dependents, and Tom Keene's good intentions are about to cost him more than he knows. Tom is jailed for a crime he did not commit, beaten and bullied until he changes again, this time into a cunning, calculating man whose sole purpose now is to be avenged for the wrongs done to him. Once released, he chases the trail of the desperado that double-crossed him.

Black Jack Max Brand tire to the life of a country gentleman. His sister's voice cut into his musing. She had two tones. One might be called her social register. It was smooth, gentle--the low-pitched and controlled voice of a gentlewoman. The other voice was hard and sharp. It could drive hard and cold across a desk, and bring businessmen to an understanding that here was a mind, not a woman. At present she used her latter tone. Vance Cornish came into a shivering consciousness that she was sitting beside him. He turned his head slowly. It was always a shock to come out of one of his pleasant dreams and see that worn, hollow-eyed, impatient face. "Are you forty-nine, Vance?" We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience

After hitting a rich vein of gold on the back of Champion Mountain, Blondy Kitchin heads to the big city to have a good time, but there his luck runs out and he ends up spending two years in prison. The prison's chaplain helps educate him, smooth out his rough edges, and convinces him that the range is the place for Kitchin to make use of his brute strength and free spirit.

Young Jim Curry's father is killed unjustly by an enraged mob, and the boy barely escapes the same fate. He shoots two pursuers and assumes they are dead, and in desperation becomes a most unusual outlaw, the Red Devil. He never kills, takes only ill-gained money, secretly returns it to the rightful owners, and escapes every pursuit on his remarkable horse, Meg. Spoiled Charlie Mark has left home to seek thrills and easy money. He vows to find the Red Devil and discover why he is so merciful and so particular about his victims. Charlie trails Meg's hoof prints to the hideout and convinces Jim to switch roles--but the new Red Devil becomes addicted to the excitement of robbing and killing. When will retribution catch up with Charlie? Can anyone save him? And where is Jim Curry? This trio of stories about the life and destiny of Jim Curry is vintage Max Brand His Western stories are considered among the best in the genre and have been translated into every major language and adapted for film and television.

Alcatraz, by Max Brand, is a story of a wild horse who many said could not be caught or broken. it was published in 1922. A classic western from one of the masters of the genre.

The Seventh Man, by Max Brand, is an amazing action adventure western with the bad guys as the sympathetic main characters. It was published in 1921. "Vic Gregg was on the danger side of thirty and he lived alone in the mountains all that winter. He wanted to marry Betty Neal, but marriage means money, therefore Vic contracted fifteen hundred dollars' worth of mining for the Duncans, and instead of taking a partner he went after that stake single handed ..."

As the American West opened up to settlers after the Civil War, people were eager for tales of great adventures, endless possibilities, and the pioneering spirit. Classic Westerns is a collection of six novels that captured this sense of exploration and brought the rugged landscape into the homes of readers everywhere. These novels--The Virginian by Owen Wister, O Pioneers by Willa Cather, The Lone Star Ranger and The Mysterious Rider by Zane Grey, and Gunman's Reckoning and The Untamed by Max Brand--tell of life on the open plains, in dusty outposts, and alongside majestic mountain ranges that rose to greet travelers who ventured forth into the unexplored country to find their destinies.

Solitary, mysterious figure Donnegan is on the run from his past. The last thing he has time for is love. But like all matters of the heart, sometimes emotions bloom when they are least convenient -- as they do the first time Donnegan encounters the kind, free-spirited Lou Macon. Do they have a shot at a happy life somewhere -- or are Donnegan's misdeeds bound to catch up with them?

With a keener interest, for she had seen a great deal of merciless riding since she came West and it always angered her. The cowpunchers used "hoss-flesh" rather than horses, a distinction that made her hot. If a horse were not good enough to be loved it was not good enough to be ridden. That was one of her maxims. She stepped closer to the window. Certainly that pony had been cruelly handled for the little grey gelding swayed in rhythm with his panting; from his belly sweat dripped steadily into the dust and the reins had chafed his neck to a lather. Marianne flashed into indignation and that, of course, made her scrutinize the rider more narrowly. He was perfect of that type of cowboy which she detested most: handsome, lithe, childishly vain in his dress. About his sombrero ran a heavy width of gold-braid; his shirt was blue silk; his bandana was red; his boots were shop-made beauties, soft and flexible; and on his heels glittered.

Ben Connor is a gambler who knows horses. He goes out west to get away from the gambling life he has been leading in New York. There he discovers a breed of grey horses that he thinks are the best horses he has ever seen. The problem is that these horses are bred in a secret valley known as the Garden of Eden and that outsiders are not welcome there. Connor sees these horses as a means of getting rich on the race tracks, but how to get one is a problem.

Ronicky Doone is a hero of the west, respected by the law-abiding citizen and hated by bushwhacking bandits. Bill Gregg is a man in love, not about to be deflected from meeting his lady love for the first time, and willing to stand up to the living legend to reach her. This initial meeting leads to a friendship between the two and they travel east to New York City on the trail of the girl. When they find the girl, Caroline Smith, and she refuses to leave, Ronicky must discover the secret that holds her. They encounter the sinister John Mark and the beautiful Ruth Tolliver and are exposed to the horrors and vices of big city life as they attempt to rescue Caroline and find their way back to the mountain-desert of the west.

The townspeople living between Cheyenne and San Antonio have braced themselves for the confrontation of a lifetime between gentle giant Bull Hunter and brawny gunslinger Pete Reeve. Peter Reeve badly wounds Bull Hunter's uncle in a gunfight. Bull intends to track down the gunman and kill him, not just for revenge, but to silence those who laughed at him and said he was too huge to be any good. Bull finds Reeve sitting in jail, waiting to be tried for murder, but not even the law can keep Bull from his showdown with him.

He made one mistake in the beginning. He pushed the chestnut too hard the first and second days, so that on the third day he was forced to give the gelding his head and go at a jarring trot most of the day. On the fourth and fifth days, however, he had the reward for his caution. The chestnut's ribs were beginning to show painfully, but he kept doggedly at his work with no sign of faltering. The sixth day brought Andrew Lanning in close view of the lower hills. And on the seventh day he put his fortune boldly to the touch and jogged into the first little town before him.

His horse dead, his leg broken, Hal Sinclair was a burden his three fellow prospectors would not accept. In spite of his pleas, they abandoned him to die in the desert. Unable to endure the torture of pain and thirst, he shot himself. Now the prospectors had to concoct a story that would absolve them of guilt as they would escape the vengeance of Hal's brother Riley, a famed gunfighter. Lowrie was the first of the three to be tracked down by Riley. Panic-stricken at the thought of a showdown with the vengeful gunman, he shot himself, but before dying he told Riley the whole story. Riley found the second man, Quade, and dropped him in a fair fight. Now only Sandersen, the last of the three, was left, but he saw a way to protect himself. He persuaded six respectable citizens that Riley should be hanged for Quade's murder, flimsy though the evidence was. There were startling surprises for the lynching party and some shocking ones for Riley in the long days ahead before he came to the end of the trail. Violence is pitted against justice in this story of a man who was both hunter and hunted, who rode through the trackless wilderness, his gun ready. In spite of the price on his head, he could protect himself, but there was another rider with him whose life depended on his judgment as well as his skill as a gunman.

The son of a notorious outlaw is adopted into a wealthy, law-abiding family as an infant after his father is killed in an attempted robbery. Will he follow in the footsteps of his outlaw father or will his life be guided by the respectable woman who nurtured him to manhood?

Dan Barry, known as "Whistling Dan," and his alter-ego companions, Black Bart, the wolf-dog, and Satan, the indomitable black stallion. It's also the story of Kate Cumberland and the incredible five-year-old daughter of Kate and Dan, Joan. We first see Dan as a gentle, caring man with a deep sense of fairness. But then, after six years of a peaceful life in their mountain cabin Dan, more feral than human, sets out to revenge an injustice by killing seven men. Ultimately, it is his devotion to his daughter and Kate's love for the child that brings about the climax of the tale.

The Great West, prior to the century's turn, abounded in legend. Stories were told of fabled gunmen whose bullets always magically found their mark, of mighty stallions whose tireless gallop rivaled the speed of the wind, of glorious women whose beauty stunned mind and heart. But nowhere in the vast spread of the mountain-desert country was there a greater legend told than the story of Red Pierre and the phantom gunfighter, McGurk. These two men of the wilderness, so unalike, of widely-differing backgrounds, had in common a single trait: each was unbeatable. Fate brought them clashing together, thunder to thunder, lightning to lightning. They were destined to meet at the crossroads of a long, long trail ... a trail which began in the northern wastes of Canada and led, finally, to a deadly confrontation in the mountains of the Far West.