The American West is as varied in its inhabitants as in its landforms. Yet what has come to stand for "Western" writing is the myth of the wagon train and the lone gunman. In the Portable Wester Reader, William Kittredge has assembled stories, poems, essays, and excerpts that transcend the Western myth and explore the vast range of Western experience. With selections from more than seventy authors, and an introduction and headnotes by William Kittredge. The Portable Western Reader redefines the Western literary landscape.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction: "West of Your Town: Another Country" by William Kittredge Suggestions for Further Reading Part One: Ancient Stories Introduction Washington Matthews, "House Made of the Dawn" (Navajo night chant) A. L. Kroeber, "The Woman and the Horse," from Gros Ventre Myths and Tales Catharine McClellan, "The Girl Who Married the Bear" Jarold Ramsey, "Coyote and Eagle Go to the Land of the Dead" C. C. Uhlenbeck, "How the Ancient Peigans Lived" (Blackfeet tale) James Welch, from Fools Crow James Mooney, from The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890 Linda Hogan, from Mean Spirit John Graves, "The Last Running" Louise Erdrich, "Fleur" Joy Harjo, "Deer Dancer" Part Two: Transcending the Western Introduction Walt Whitman, "Song of the Redwood-Tree" from Leaves of Grass e. e. cummings, "Buffalo Bill's" D. H. Lawrence, from "Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales," in Studies in Classic American Literature Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, from the Journals A. B. Guthrie Jr., from The Big Sky Teddy Blue Abbott, from We Pointed Them North: Recollections of a Cowpuncher O. E. Rolvaag, from Giants in the Earth Elinore Rupert Stewart, from Letters of a Woman Homesteader Wallace Stegner, "Carrion Spring," from Wolf Willow Mari Sandoz, from Old Jules Dorothy M. Johnson, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Jack London, "A Raid on the Oyster Pirates" JOhn Steinbeck, "The Squatters' Camps," from The Harvest Gypsies Robinson Jeffers, "Eagle Valor, Chicken Mind" Ernest Hemingway, "The Clark's Fork Valley, Wyoming" Theodore Roethke, "All Morning" "The Far Field" Norman Maclean, from A River Runs Through It Wright Morris, from Ceremony in Lone Tree John Haines, "If the Owl Calls Again," from The Owl in the Mask of the Dreamer from "Three Days," in The Stars, the Snow, the Fire Ivan Doig, from This House of Sky Larry McMurtry, "Take My Saddle from the Wall: A Valediction" Mary Clearman Brew, from All But the Waltz Part Three: Our Own Stories Introduction W. H. Auden, "The West from the Air," from The Dyer's Hand Galway Kinnell, "The Bear" William Stafford, "Traveling Through the Dark" "Help from History" "Paso por Aqui" "Late, Passing Prairie Farm" David Wagoner, "A Guide to Dungeness Spit" Ken Kesey, from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Thomas McGrath, "Legends, Heroes, Myth-Figures and Other American Liars" "The Pleasures of the Great Salt Lake" "Longing" Keith Wilson, "The Poem Politic 10: A Note for Future Historians" Edward Abbey, from Desert Solitaire Gary Snyder, "Above Pate Valley" "Painting the North San Juan School" "Getting in the Wood" "Dillingham, Alaska, the Willow Tree Bar" Richard Hugo, "Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg" "The Freaks at Spurgin Road Field" "Silver Star" "Driving Montana" "Fort Benton" "Duwamish" "Salt Water Story" Philip Levine, "Sierra Kid" "Soloing" Richard Shelton, "The Hole" "The Stones" Maxine Hong Kingston, "American Father," from China Men Raymond Carver, "My Father's Life" Richard Ford, "Communist" David Quammen, "Orphan Calves," from "Walking Out" Thomas McGuane, "The Heart of the Game" Rick Demarinis, "Paraiso: An Elegy" Greg Pape, "Some Names" "Blessing at the Citadel" Tess Gallagher, "Cougar Meat" "The Borrowed Ones" Part Four: Brilliant Possibilities Introduction Czeslaw Milosz, "To Robinson Jeffers" N. Scott Momaday, from The Names: A Memoir Robert Hass, "On the Coast near Sausalito" "On Squaw Peak" Gretel Ehrlich, "On Water," from The Solace of Open Spaces Leslie Marmon Silko, "Storyteller" Marilynne Robinson, from Housekeeping David Long, "Lightning" Pattiann Rogers, "A Passing" "Why Lost Divinity Remains Lost" Garrett Hongo, "Yellow Light" "What For" Robert Wrigley, "Ravens at Deer Creek" "Majestic" Alberto Rios, "The Secret Lion," from The Iguana Killer Jimmy Santiago Baca, from "Martin," in Martin and Meditations on the South Valley #Section V# Ray Gonzalez, "Snakeskin (A Dream)" "Talk with the Priest" James Galvin, "Water Table" "Coming into His Shop from a Bright Afternoon," from The Meadow Terry Tempest Williams, "The Clan of One-Breasted Women," from Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place Richard K. Nelson, "The Gifts of Deer," from The Island Within Adrian C. Louis, "In the Ghetto on the Prairie There Is Unrequited Love" "Sometimes a Warrior Comes Tired" "America Loomed Before Us" Sherman Alexie, "The Business of Fancydancing" "My Heroes Have Never Been Cowboys" Barry Lopez, "The Passing Wisdom of Birds" Allen Ginsberg, "A Supermarket in California"