Imagine a broad vista, a rider on horseback silhouetted against a setting sun. It’s magic hour, and the rider is about to embark on a journey that you, dear movie watcher or reader, shall be swept along for. This is the Western, and it’s one of the most distinctive genres of film ever created, as well as a beloved genre of literature.

There are many stories to be told by the Western, and below are a few books you can find on the Libby app paired with movies available on Kanopy. So, grab your library card and enjoy a few tales from the Wild West (and a little beyond).

The real wild West

🎥 Ken Burns: The West, directed by Ken Burns

Yes, John Ford movies and Zane Grey novels feel like the West, but what was it really like? Go in depth with PBS’s Ken Burns: The West. This is a 9-episode documentary that dives into the various peoples, events and ideas that formed what the new nation of America called the West. The documentary looks at wide varieties of indigenous peoples, Spaniards coming up from Mexico, missionaries from the East and more, as well as the building of railroads, the gold rush and numerous wars. This series examines much of the history of the West, but if the hours and hours of this series aren’t enough, keep going with another Ken Burns series for PBS, American Buffalo.

📚 Blood Memory by Dayton Duncan

Speaking of American Buffalo, may I suggest the companion book to that series as a great read? Blood Memory tracks the history of the bison and how this magnificent animal was hunted nearly to extinction before making one of nature’s great recoveries. It’s a fascinating look at both the old West and the beginnings of the conservation movement in America.

(And I can’t leave the real wild West without quickly mentioning journalist and historian Tom Clavin and his excellent books Follow Me to Hell and The Last Outlaws.)

Native American narratives

🎥 Te Ata, starring Graham Greene, Gil Birmingham & Q'orianka Kilcher

Starring Q'orianka Kilcher as Mary Thompson Fisher, the Chickasaw actress known as Te Ata, this movie tells the true story of a young woman with a passion for the theater and a desire to bring the stories of her people to the rest of the world. Born in Oklahoma, she was eventually able to attend the state’s College for Women where she began to formally study theater, and where a mentor encouraged her to perform the legends of the Chickasaw. The film follows her exceptional career all the way to the White House, as well as her romance and marriage to a scientist and professor who always supported her career. It’s a lovely and inspirational story.

📚 Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

There’s no sophomore slump detected in Orange’s follow up to his hit debut novel, There There. This historical novel follows Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado in 1864. He’s taken to Fort Marion to learn English and Christianity and forget the life he had before. A generation later when his son, Charles, goes to the same school, he connects with another student, Opal Viola, and the two of them try to imagine a future that takes them away from this harsh life forced upon them and their people.

Classic Westerns

🎥 Rio Grande starring Maureen O'Hara, John Wayne, Harry Carey, Ben Johnson & Claude Jarman

Nothing says ‘Western movie’ quite like John Ford and John Wayne. Rio Grande is one of their many collaborations, and it possesses much of their signature style. Monument Valley, Utah is shown in all its glory, and the Duke is once again wildly in love with a stunningly beautiful Maureen O'Hara. The story finds Wayne commanding cavalry troops along the Rio Grande when one day his son, who has failed out of West Point, shows up as a raw recruit. O’Hara follows her son, hoping to convince her estranged husband (Wayne) to send their son home.

📚 Three-Ten to Yuma and Other Stories by Elmore Leonard

There are a lot of classic Western books, from Zane Grey’s Riders of the Purple Sage to Louis L’Amour’s Hondo. But I don’t think readers can do much better than diving into this collection of short stories by Leonard, which includes “Three-Ten to Yuma,” a story so good, Hollywood has felt the need to make this more than once. It’s a simple tale - an underpaid and underappreciated deputy marshal needs to get wanted criminal, Jimmy Kidd, on the train leaving for Yuma so he can stand trial. But Kidd’s gang is there to see that their leader never gets on that train. Leonard’s signature dialogue and the race for the train make this story rightfully considered a classic.

Award-winning Westerns

🎥 No Country for Old Men starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Garret Dillahunt, Woody Harrelson & Kelly Macdonald

As beloved as Westerns are, they have seldom taken home Best Picture at the Oscars. This Coen Brothers’ neo-Western, however, couldn’t be overlooked by the Academy, and many other folks handing out awards in 2007. Based on the novel by Western master, Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men is a violent character study of crime, murder and unintended consequences. The cast is amazing, including an Oscar-winning performance by Javier Bardem. (Although, am I the only one who was blown away Tommy Lee Jones’s performance even more?) At any rate, this movie is a must-see.

📚 The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

Erdrich was already a critically acclaimed and awarded author when this novel picked up the Pulitzer Prize in 2021. The book is inspired by the author’s grandfather, who fought against the dispossession of the Chippewa people in North Dakota and follows Thomas and Patrice in their impoverished life on the Turtle Mountain Reservation. Their lives intersect with vividly drawn characters, like boxer Wood Mountain and his mother, as well as others from outside the reservation, like the white high-school teacher who is in love with Patrice.

Eastern Westerns: Samurai films

🎥 Seven Samurai starring Takashi Shimura, Toshirô Mifune & Keiko Tsushima

Can a Western be, well, Eastern? A lot of the same tropes and genre expectations that are found in the Western are also central to some stories from the East, including the samurai stories of Japan. This probably explains why Kurosawa’s classic Seven Samurai has been remade by Hollywood twice as Westerns called Magnificent Seven. In the Kurosawa original, seven ronin - samurai with no master - are gathered to protect a village from a bandit gang in the lawless days of 16th century Japan. The movie is, of course, masterfully shot, while also providing a dose of philosophy in the midst of bravery and hope.

📚 Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa, translated by Charles Terry

Miyamoto Musashi came of age not long after the time depicted in Seven Samurai, as a century and a half of civil war in Japan was finally coming to an end. Considered by many the samurai’s samurai, Miyamoto Musashi wrote The Book of Five Rings, the classic text about the samurai way of life. Yoshikawa’s historical novel is a classic of Japanese literature in its own right, following Musashi from his earliest days as a warrior, through his years as a fugitive, then a prisoner in solitary confinement for three years, to his evolving beliefs about what it means to follow the Way of the Sword.

*Access to films and books may vary by library and region.

Saddle up, partners, and check out some of these Westerns throughout the month of March on the Libby and Kanopy apps from your library.

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