The Log of a Cowboy

A classic fictional chronicle of life on the open trail, THE LOG OF A COWBOY has long been considered the best and most reliable account of real cowboy life ever written.
In the years following the Civil War, sixteen-year-old Andy Adams left his home in the San Antonio Valley and took to the range. Here he charts his first journey as a bona fide cowboy, from south Texas to Montana along the western trail. Guided by his plainspoken, sure-saddled voice and the living, breathing feel of firsthand experience on every page, we relive dusty cattle drives, perilous river crossings, honor-based gunfights, and narrow escapes from buffalo stampedes, not to mention tall tales passed around the campfire and such unforgettable characters as Bull Durham and Bill Blades.
THE LOG OF A COWBOY, newly introduced by Thomas McGuane, offers a true depiction of a cowboy's life and work as well as a classic adventure story of the great American frontier.

Andy Adams was an American author of western literature who lived from May 3, 1859, to September 26, 1935. The son of Andrew Adams, who was of Irish origin, and Elizabeth Elliott, who was of Scottish descent, Andy Adams was born in Thorncreek Township, Whitley County, Indiana. He assisted with the cattle and horses on the family farm when he was a little boy. He moved to Texas in the early 1880s and lived there for ten years, spending a lot of that time moving cattle over the western routes. He attempted to become a merchant in 1890, but the endeavor was unsuccessful. He next tried his hand at gold mining in Colorado and Nevada. He relocated to Colorado Springs in 1894, where he remained until his death. His most popular work, The Log of a Cowboy, was published in 1903, when he was 43 years old and he starting to write. A Texas Matchmaker (1904), The Outlet (1905), Cattle Brands (1906), Reed Anthony, Cowman: An Autobiography (1907), Wells Brothers (1911), and The Ranch on the Beaver are some of his other books (1927).