Cowboys North and South

by Will James

Now this classic collection of cowboy stories, first published in 1924, is available in a new edition for the first time in decades. "A delight from Preface to tail-piece, and full of amazingly good pen-and-ink drawings by the author . . . every page is absorbing".--PHILADELPHIA RECORD.

Genres: Horses

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1923

About the author

Will James, artist and writer of the American West, was born Joseph Ernest Nephtali Dufault. It was during his creative years everyone grew to know him as Will James. During the next several years, he drifted, worked at several jobs, was briefly jailed for cattle rustling, served in the army, and began selling his sketches and in 1922 sold his first writing, Bucking Horse Riders. The sale of several books followed.

An artist and author of books about the American west and, in particular, horses, Will James wrote the 1926 book "Smoky the Cowhorse". It was awarded the John Newbery Medal in 1927, and remains in print to this day. Several movie adaptations of the story have been created, including a 1933 version that included Will James himself as the narrator.

His fictionalized autobiography, Lone Cowboy, was written in 1930. He also wrote Home Ranch (1935) and he wrote his last book, The American Cowboy, in 1942. In all, he wrote and illustrated 23 books.

In 1991, Will James was named a member of the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.

Reviews

[Tom Johnson]

1947 HC edition with original illustrations of which there are many; all first rate https://www.biblio.com/book/cowboys-n... a dirty shame that GOODREADS doesn't show all the editions; the art is everything. 5 for the sketches and 3 for the text. This is his first book written 1923-1924 with all the latent racism that is to this date US-indelible. Thank God for "the all-night chink restaurant". Where a white man can still get a decent noodle. The stories aren't as good as his later Cow Country IMHO for what that's worth - tuppence on a good day. There are a couple above average stories and much in detailing the work of the cowboy. There is some explicit cruelty. Not a kid's book. A Hard & Cruel World for man and beast. But his drawing; never fails to blow me away.

[Paydn Augustine]

An awesome little novel that serves as a very unique historical documentary in life as a cowboy. Will could nearly be seen as the first Gonzo, embedded from birth in a life that is nearly foreign to the modern world, it was a wonderful and quick jaunt through life as a cowboy of the 1920s; Not dramatized, fictional garbage, but real and raw dirt on your boots.

[Lisa of Troy]

Part of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s personal library according to Scott Fitzgerald: Romantic and Realist by John Richard Kuehl 1958
*These were books NOT given to Princeton. They were returned to Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald’s daughter, France Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan

[Sequoyah Branham]

As usual, Will James, shows the hard time and the sweet times through real accounts. He doesn’t sugarcoat things
He’s writing from a different time than anyone nowadays will ever know.