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Arizona Nights
Arizona Nights: Large Print By Stewart Edward White A series of stories loosely connected by the narrative device of different speakers swapping yarns around the campfire at the end of each trail-riding day."A series of spirited tales emphasizing some phase of the life of the ranch, plains and desert, and all, taken together, forming a single sharply-cut picture of life in the far Southwest. All the tonic of the West is in this masterpiece of Stewart Edward White." 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.
- GenresWesternsShort Stories
351 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1907
13 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
Stewart Edward White
583 books27 followersFrom about 1900 until about 1922, he wrote fiction and non-fiction about adventure and travel, with an emphasis on natural history and outdoor living. Starting in 1922, he and his wife Elizabeth "Betty" Grant White wrote numerous books they claimed were received through channelling with spirits. They also wrote of their travels around the state of California. White died in Hillsborough, California.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 4, 2017
A few years ago I rounded up a whole herd of reading lists, trying to tidy up all those books that appealed to me at Project Gutenberg. I made a slight dent in the Big List by doing that but naturally since then I have not only not read many of the titles on those lists, I have added others to the Big List.
But 2017 is the year for cutting as many titles as possible out of their comfy pastures and into the land of statistics. Which is how I came to read this book. It is divided into three sections. In the first, White is the 'I' narrating the time he spent with 'The Cattleman' helping out at round-up time. Every evening around the campfire, one or the other of the cowboys tells a story, and then the narration shifts to that cowboy. The other two sections are stories written about Buck Johnson (who I suspect is 'The Cattleman') and his early days in the territory.
I liked the book for its authentic feel, and because I lived in the area for many years, I could easily picture the rugged country, the desert during and after the rainstorm that sent them all scrambling for shelter in caves one night, and of course the horses.
But have you ever been reading and heard a Nagging Little Voice in your head saying you had read the book before? I began to hear that Voice during the story about Texas Pete, who was a horrible man and charged travelers outrageously high prices per head for a drink of water at the only well in that part of the desert. I shut the voice up that time by reminding it of a novel I had read featuring the same scenario and in the same area, and went on reading.
When I got to the story about the cowboys who went searching for treasure in Mexico and all that happened to them, the Nagging Little Voice became a Screaming Big Voice. I just could not figure out where I had read that bit before, though. Until late last night when I finished the book and was trying to get to sleep. Then the truth whacked me upside the head: I have a print copy of this book in Arizona! And I read it once, at least 15 years ago. The only difference is that the edition I chose to use here has a really cool cover and mine is a plain dark brown with only the title and the author's name. I can see it in my little pea brain now, right down to where it is in my bookcase in Mom's house. When I visit again in May, I an going to use a few minutes of one of my Arizona days to make sure I am not hallucinating my Arizona Nights. Then I imagine I will have to apologize for doubting that Nagging Little Voice.
But 2017 is the year for cutting as many titles as possible out of their comfy pastures and into the land of statistics. Which is how I came to read this book. It is divided into three sections. In the first, White is the 'I' narrating the time he spent with 'The Cattleman' helping out at round-up time. Every evening around the campfire, one or the other of the cowboys tells a story, and then the narration shifts to that cowboy. The other two sections are stories written about Buck Johnson (who I suspect is 'The Cattleman') and his early days in the territory.
I liked the book for its authentic feel, and because I lived in the area for many years, I could easily picture the rugged country, the desert during and after the rainstorm that sent them all scrambling for shelter in caves one night, and of course the horses.
But have you ever been reading and heard a Nagging Little Voice in your head saying you had read the book before? I began to hear that Voice during the story about Texas Pete, who was a horrible man and charged travelers outrageously high prices per head for a drink of water at the only well in that part of the desert. I shut the voice up that time by reminding it of a novel I had read featuring the same scenario and in the same area, and went on reading.
When I got to the story about the cowboys who went searching for treasure in Mexico and all that happened to them, the Nagging Little Voice became a Screaming Big Voice. I just could not figure out where I had read that bit before, though. Until late last night when I finished the book and was trying to get to sleep. Then the truth whacked me upside the head: I have a print copy of this book in Arizona! And I read it once, at least 15 years ago. The only difference is that the edition I chose to use here has a really cool cover and mine is a plain dark brown with only the title and the author's name. I can see it in my little pea brain now, right down to where it is in my bookcase in Mom's house. When I visit again in May, I an going to use a few minutes of one of my Arizona days to make sure I am not hallucinating my Arizona Nights. Then I imagine I will have to apologize for doubting that Nagging Little Voice.
August 26, 2018
Beauty, atrocity, burlesque, tragedy ... this book has it all. A real find. Started reading Western literature this winter - four authors so far - this tops them all. (My rating: Stewart White - 4 stars; Elmore Leonard - 3.5; Louis L'Amour - 3; Zane Grey - 1.)
February 22, 2010
This book was full of short stories told by cowboys around campfires. I enjoyed it - not my normal choice of reading, prefer a good novel. I thought this was a fun quote on p. 220, "Wall, I've seen and I've heerd things, some of them ornery, and some you'd love to believe, they was that gorgeous and improbable. Nat'ral history was always my hobby and sportin' events my special pleasure- and this yarn of Windy's reminds me of the only chanst I ever had to ring in business and pleasure and hobby all in one grand merry-go-round of joy." He went on to tell a story about chickens, he raised and named the honk honk breed.
March 23, 2013
There are two main reasons why this book is rated "really like" over just "like." 1) It was published in 1907, which gives it a certain interesting credibility even though it is fictional. 2) I'm an Arizona native, currently living in South Korea. The stories, tone, and of course, familiar setting all warmed my home-sick heart. I found it adventurous, funny, interesting from an anthropological perspective and all around entertaining for all who are interested in cowboy fiction. So sit back and enjoy the colorful language in this one! (Not referring to excessive use of cuss words but rather the poetically poor English).
April 11, 2022
Fun, easy read. Cowboy stories. Some interesting situations, some good laughs, and depictions of simple, cowboy life. I don't recommend this cheap Kindle version though. It's hard to manipulate and some pages are cut short, or seem to be missing, or are out of order. Overall, the book is an entertaining escape route without being boring or overtaxing the brain.
May 14, 2018
Honest West
There are a variety of sound western stories. Each short story was true to the lore of the west and it's characters.
There are a variety of sound western stories. Each short story was true to the lore of the west and it's characters.
March 6, 2021
Contemporary to Owen Wister and Eugene Rhodes and almost on par with both writers as an artist, White’s intimate portrait of ranch life in Southeast Arizona is like unearthing a time capsule. Perhaps no other book I’ve ever read better describes the day-to-day work of a cowpuncher and what makes him tick.
This is essentially a collection of three short stories loosely tied together by the same few characters. The collective whole is a story of a place -a moment in time- as much as a story of a people. The writing is often lyrical, without being sentimental; the characterizations are very tightly drawn; the action is novel, original and avoids cliche. Those with a love for the Old West, and who seek to understand how it really was, should consider this required reading.
This would have been five stars, but I didn’t appreciate the frequent racial slurs. I know you could write volumes on the debate about older literature and it’s problematic stereotyping. All books have value, and, at the least we can learn from the mistakes of the past. I do believe hindsight is 20/20 on these matters, and that we are naive to apply our contemporary values on writers of a different era. However -and I think this is significant-, I have read widely in the early Western genre and found there were many writers who didn’t see fit to poke fun at their non-Anglos characters. Case and point: Eugene Rhodes. Rhodes saw fit to make his Hispanic characters “good guys”. Only men who took advantage of their neighbors were the bad guys. The humble and honest toilers always came out heroes in Rhodes’ novels. That’s how it should be -in my opinion. Not all writers are created equal in this regard. White took the chance to make non-Anglos the objects of fun, while some of his contemporaries chose the higher ground. That knocked him down in my estimation, even though in all other respects White is an admirable artist.
On the whole, as a study of authentic Western life, even with its warts, this is reading that shouldn’t be passed by.
This is essentially a collection of three short stories loosely tied together by the same few characters. The collective whole is a story of a place -a moment in time- as much as a story of a people. The writing is often lyrical, without being sentimental; the characterizations are very tightly drawn; the action is novel, original and avoids cliche. Those with a love for the Old West, and who seek to understand how it really was, should consider this required reading.
This would have been five stars, but I didn’t appreciate the frequent racial slurs. I know you could write volumes on the debate about older literature and it’s problematic stereotyping. All books have value, and, at the least we can learn from the mistakes of the past. I do believe hindsight is 20/20 on these matters, and that we are naive to apply our contemporary values on writers of a different era. However -and I think this is significant-, I have read widely in the early Western genre and found there were many writers who didn’t see fit to poke fun at their non-Anglos characters. Case and point: Eugene Rhodes. Rhodes saw fit to make his Hispanic characters “good guys”. Only men who took advantage of their neighbors were the bad guys. The humble and honest toilers always came out heroes in Rhodes’ novels. That’s how it should be -in my opinion. Not all writers are created equal in this regard. White took the chance to make non-Anglos the objects of fun, while some of his contemporaries chose the higher ground. That knocked him down in my estimation, even though in all other respects White is an admirable artist.
On the whole, as a study of authentic Western life, even with its warts, this is reading that shouldn’t be passed by.
August 29, 2016
You know you're reading a Western when somebody mentions 'hosses' in the very first sentence.
The bulk of this excellent collection consists of a series of campfire stories told by the ranch hands as they work together on an open range roundup, the different stages of which are themselves excitingly narrated by an unnamed cow-puncher.
The stories are all triggered off by their immediate activities, as such things tend to be. They vary in length and style, some humorous some tragic, touching on foolishness and treachery, harking back to the lawless days of Cochise and Geronimo.
Then there were two separate stories featuring the biggest cattle rancher in Arizona, the grimly determined Buck Johnson, neither of which end particularly well for him.
The first of these, 'The Two-Gun Man', involves a double-cross you can see coming from a mile away and was made into a movie in 1930 called Under a Texas Moon.
The second story, 'The Rawhide', was something altogether superior. Suddenly struck with the emptiness of his life and shabbiness of his surroundings, Buck Johnson decides to take a pretty young wife, who finds nothing to amuse herself with in the desert beyond binding potatoes in wet rawhide, which shrinks and strangles them when heated in the sun.
Stewart Edward White writes a refined prose, with little of the romanticism for his subject matter which often undermines the authenticity of the genre. Whenever anyone kills he does so as cravenly as can, shooting his man unawares.
The author clearly loved the place too, the 'magnificent, flaming, changing, beautiful, dreadful desert of the Arizona Plains', the mesquite prairies, the alkali dust, the cactus, the mountains that look so brittle in the blazing sun.
It's a geography that lends itself to poetic description.
The bulk of this excellent collection consists of a series of campfire stories told by the ranch hands as they work together on an open range roundup, the different stages of which are themselves excitingly narrated by an unnamed cow-puncher.
The stories are all triggered off by their immediate activities, as such things tend to be. They vary in length and style, some humorous some tragic, touching on foolishness and treachery, harking back to the lawless days of Cochise and Geronimo.
Then there were two separate stories featuring the biggest cattle rancher in Arizona, the grimly determined Buck Johnson, neither of which end particularly well for him.
The first of these, 'The Two-Gun Man', involves a double-cross you can see coming from a mile away and was made into a movie in 1930 called Under a Texas Moon.
The second story, 'The Rawhide', was something altogether superior. Suddenly struck with the emptiness of his life and shabbiness of his surroundings, Buck Johnson decides to take a pretty young wife, who finds nothing to amuse herself with in the desert beyond binding potatoes in wet rawhide, which shrinks and strangles them when heated in the sun.
Stewart Edward White writes a refined prose, with little of the romanticism for his subject matter which often undermines the authenticity of the genre. Whenever anyone kills he does so as cravenly as can, shooting his man unawares.
The author clearly loved the place too, the 'magnificent, flaming, changing, beautiful, dreadful desert of the Arizona Plains', the mesquite prairies, the alkali dust, the cactus, the mountains that look so brittle in the blazing sun.
It's a geography that lends itself to poetic description.
February 14, 2016
I had read a short story or two by Stewart Edward White, but this is the first of his books I've read. Definitely won't be the last. The first section reminded me of Canterbury Tales--good stories told well and also tied together well. The other two sections are more typical Westerns but still thoughtful. White's descriptions of the landscape are pure poetry.
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October 30, 2009Southwest
March 21, 2012
Read my review at my blog.
March 23, 2016
Old time adventure
A turn of the century novel that paints a lifestyle reminiscent of yesteryear in the southwest. A terribly interesting read in another time.
A turn of the century novel that paints a lifestyle reminiscent of yesteryear in the southwest. A terribly interesting read in another time.
July 26, 2017
An authentic look and scenic read into the land and people of Arizona in the late 19th century.
June 29, 2018
Beautiful writing in the voice of a poetic Arizona cowboy.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews