The Long, Long Trail

A wilful flirtatious girl; a morose family; a dark, mysterious, and (to some) alluring man; lots of horses, guns, honour, love, courage, and treachery in this 1921 pulp western. Max Brand was known for going well beyond the formulaic western. The Long, Long Trailis an excellent example of the special craft of Max Brand.

This is a story about desperate men and the gun code they live by. Since Jess Dreer avenged his father's murder, he’d been a lone outlaw eluding Sheriff Caswell. But a woman in need of help changes all of that when Jess sets out to find and destroy a hired gunslinger.

The Long, Long Trail was first published 1921 in Western Story Magazine in six parts under the pen name George Owen Baxter. This edition is unabridged. Also available as audiobook, (TRT): 7 hours and 23 min. Read by David Wales. 

Max Brand was the pen name for Frederick Schiller Faust (1892-1944) who was an American author known primarily for his thoughtful and literary Westerns.