The Log of the Cowboy and Other Trail Tales – 5 Western Novels in One Volume: True Life Narratives of Texas Cowboys and Adventure Novels

by Andy Adams

"The Log of a Cowboy" is an account of a five-month drive of 3,000 cattle from Brownsville, Texas, to Montana during 1882 along the Great Western Cattle Trail. Although the book is fiction, it is based on Adams's own experiences, and it is considered by many to be literature's best account of cowboy life. Adams was disgusted by the unrealistic cowboy fiction being published in his time; The Log of a Cowboy was his response. The Chicago Herald has "As a narrative of cowboy life, Andy Adams' book is clearly the real thing. It carries its own certificate of authentic first-hand experience on every page." This edition also includes Adams other famous western novels like The Outlet, A Texas Matchmaker, Reed Anthony, Cowman and The Wells Brothers. Andy Adams (1859–1935) was an American writer of western fiction and was born in Indiana. Since childhood Andy used to help his parents with the cattle and horses on the family farm. Due to this Andy's works have been lauded widely for his first hand and authentic portrayal of the life of a cowboy unlike his contemporaries like Owen Wister who romanticized it.

Genres: Westerns

626 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 11, 2017

About the author

Andy Adams (1859–1935) was born to pioneer parents in Indiana, worked in Texas for ten years driving cattle, and settled in Colorado Springs, where he began writing his "real" stories of cowboys in the West.

While still in his teens, Adams ran away from home. He eventually made his way to Texas, where he found work as a cowboy. From 1882 to 1893, Adams witnessed firsthand the golden era of the Texas cattle industry, a time when the cowboys ran cattle on vast open ranges still relatively unrestricted by barbed wire fences. In 1883, he made the first of many cattle drives along the famous cattle trails running north from Texas to the cow towns of Kansas. As farmers began to challenge the ranchers for control of the land, Adams witnessed the gradual fencing-in of the cattle country that would eventually end the short age of the open range. He made his last cattle drive in 1889.

In 1893, Adams left Texas for Colorado, attracted by rumors of gold at Cripple Creek. Like most would-be miners, he failed to make a fortune in the business. He eventually settled in Colorado Springs, where he remained for most of his life. While doing on a variety of jobs, Adams began to write stories based on his experiences as a Texas cowboy. In 1903, he found a publisher for his novel The Log of a Cowboy, a thinly disguised autobiography of his life on the plains. A fascinated public welcomed tales from the former cowboy, and Adams wrote and published four similar volumes in less than four years.

Adams distinguished himself from the majority of other western authors of the day with his meticulous accuracy and fidelity to the truth. As its name implied, The Log of a Cowboy was a day-by-day account of a cattle drive Adams had made from Texas to Montana. The book had little plot beyond the progress of the cattle herd toward Montana, and had none of the romantic excitement offered by less literal chroniclers of the West. Adams' self-avowed goal was to make his fiction indistinguishable from fact, and as one commentator has noted, "in this he succeeds only too well."

While a reader searching for a good story might find Adams' books somewhat dull today, historians and writers looking for an accurate depiction of the cowboy life have found them invaluable. Beyond his five best-known books, Adams also wrote two popular novels for juveniles later in his career. When he died in Colorado Springs in 1935, he left a number of unpublished manuscripts of novels, stories, and plays that historians of the Old West have also found useful.

Reviews

[Rebeka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now, when the trail is a lost occupation, and reverie and reminiscence carry the mind back to that day, there are friends and faces that may be forgotten, but there are horses that never will be. There were emergencies in which the horse was everything, his rider merely the accessory. But together, man and horse, they were the force that made it possible to move the millions of cattle which passed up and over the various trails of the West.

Andy Adams is not primarily known for engaging plots, strong characterizations or beautiful style. In fact, I often see his fiction described as dry and boring. Despite that, he strongly influenced the genre, he's been praised by critics and historians, and even newer authors draw inspiration from his work, especially The Log of the Cowboy. Why is it?

Well, the secret for it lies in the historicity of his works. Andy Adams actually participated in the cattle drives of the late 1800s, worked with cattle for at least 10 years. Seeing the sudden rise of the popularity of the dime western in the early 1900s, he decided to set the record straight and dispel the myths of the romantic cowboy life. These five novels are the result.

It truly does seem like his primary goal in writing was to describe, in as precise detail as possible, all the aspects of the late 1800s cattle rancher life. He shines in these descriptions of nature, trail work, hunting, casual illness and death and the delightful campfire stories. As a result, the solutions to the problems encountered are often anticlimactic, with nature and politicians posing the greatest, most insurmountable danger and Indians and rustlers being very open for monetary negotiations.

I had two issues over all five of his stories - one is the racism, which comes on very strongly and out of nowhere, and disappears just as quickly to continue relating the story of the trail. Racism really blinds people - his writing, normally very realistic and multi-dimensional, suddenly was transformed in a blind hatred against minstrel caricatures.
The second problem was that he took his realism maybe a notch too far for enjoyment - he does describe even the paperwork and the accounts of selling and buying cattle, which could sometimes go on for pages. No doubt valuable for a historian, but... I'm not surprised that most people read only The Log of the Cowboy, since it deals with the cowboy life most directly.

On the aforementioned novel, I felt it was the best in a literary sense. It's an engaging tale of the wild west, of the real lives of cowherds living on the range. It has it all - gunfights, tales at the campfire, encounters with natives, horse riding, gambling, death defying stunts and pioneer lifestyle. Loved it all.

The next one was A Texas Matchmaker. Here Andy Adams decided to focus more on the ranch hand work in Texas, with enough drama and heartache thrown in to engage. One of the stories that makes you feel that times change, but people never do.

The third story was The Outlet. Here we are back on the road, but the main character isn't a trail hand but rather a trail boss - in charge of an entire herd of cattle, giving orders. Here the main drama was served by the complicated legality of cattle contracts, with a good dash of upper class Northerners vs working class Southerners. It was a bit hypocritical of him to be so chafed at the dismissive and uncaring attitude of the upper class, while he has the same attitude toward people of color.

The fourth story was Reed Anthony, Cowman. This was the only story that disappointed me. It was entirely concerned with a cattle tycoon in the making, and the broader economics of trail cattle trade, politics, endless paperwork and business dealings and very little in the way of engagement. It also seemed like Andy Adams strongly wished he was a cattle tycoon and imagined how it is, instead of writing from his own experience, as previously he did to great success.

The fifth story was The Wells Brothers. A story concerned with the small pioneer rancher working against all odds to thrive. Idealized, like Reed Anthony, the titular characters are very simple, hard-working and kind-hearted people. The first two thirds of the novel were where Adams shined in his descriptions of direct, tough ranch work with two completely uninitiated ranchers.

Overall, I would recommend The Log of the Cowboy to anyone who is into Westerns and wants to know what it was really like. Also anyone who appreciates nature descriptions and colorful language, you'll find your home here too.

Some quotes and note the colorful language further ahead. There were a lot of great passages, but they mostly require context and are a bit too long to properly appreciate.

We scouted along the Salt Fork for a mile either way before we found sufficient dry, dead cottonwood to form our raft. Then we set about cutting it, but we had only one axe, and were the poorest set of axemen that were ever called upon to perform a similar task; when we cut a tree it looked as though a beaver had gnawed it down. On horseback the Texan shines at the head of his class, but in any occupation which must be performed on foot he is never a competitor.

The wagon mules had been turned loose, harnessed, while we were crossing the wagon and other effects; and when we drove the remuda into the river, one of the wheel mules turned back, and in spite of every man, reached the bank again. Part of the boys hurried the others across, but McCann and I turned back after our wheeler. We caught him without any trouble, but our attempt to lead him across failed. In spite of all the profanity addressed personally to him, he proved a credit to his sire, and we lost ground in trying to force him into the river.
"Time's too valuable to monkey with a mule to-day," said Priest, as he rode up.

This luck of ours was circulating faster than a secret amongst women.

"Now, June," said Uncle Lance, as we rode along, "I want you to let Henry Annear's wife strictly alone to-night. You know what a stink it raised all along the river, just because you danced with her once, last San Jacinto day. Of course, Henry made a fool of himself by trying to borrow a six-shooter and otherwise getting on the prod. And I'll admit that it don't take the best of eyesight to see that his wife to-day thinks more of your old boot than she does of Annear's wedding suit, yet her husband will be the last man to know it. No man can figure to a certainty on a woman. Three guesses is not enough, for she will and she won't, and she'll straddle the question or take the fence, and when you put a copper on her to win, she loses. God made them just that way, and I don't want to criticise His handiwork."

"I loved his wife once and am not ashamed of it, and he knows it. And much as I want to obey you, Uncle Lance, if he attempts to stand up a bluff on me, just as sure as hell's hot there'll be a strange face or two in heaven."

[..]in my secret heart I knew who held the whip hand over the passions within me.

That's all right, son, but hereafter remember that a resolve about a woman is only good for the day it is made, or until you meet her.

and the town has officers, it's true, but they've got sense enough to know which side their bread's buttered on;

The brothers awoke to the fact that in the best laid plans of mice and men the unforeseen is ever present.