When people ask for Western recommendations, the go-to suggestions are usually Lonesome Dove and Blood Meridian. These are phenomenal books, but they were written 20+ years after what is often called the "Golden Age" of Westerns.
I know that the "Golden Age" name is largely referring to Western movies, radio shows, etc., but I also know that Westerns were a popular pulp genre akin to fantasy, horror, and sci-fi. While those other genres seem to have produced a number of writers who are still read and taken seriously today — folks like Lovecraft, Howard, and Asimov — pulp Western writers seem to have been largely forgotten.
Anyone have recommendations for older, pulpy Westerns? Whether they're ones you personally enjoyed or just ones that stand out as particularly key parts of the pulp landscape at the time. The only story from this general era I've read is Clifford Simak's short story Gunsmoke Interlude, from 1952, which I really liked.
Thank you!
by OkapiAlloy
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Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
Shane by Jack Schaefer
Also, I haven’t read any of him, but Louis L’Amour wrote a ton of Westerns that I understand to be pulpy.
Check out Louis L’amour. I think his oldest stuff was published in the 1950s, and as far as I know all of this full length books are westerns. Some of those are probably pulpy. A handful or more were turned into movies, like Hondo. The Sacketts is a long family saga that was a pretty good miniseries in the late 70s.
My husband isn’t a big reader. Or a little reader. He’s read one book as an adult and it was Louis L’amour’s To Tame a Land. I’m sure it’s been 40 years since he read it, but he could still tell you about it.
The Western stories of Elmore Leonard is a good pulpy collection.