Among others cited later, John Mack Faragher’s works on the American West include:

Turner, Frederick Jackson, 1861-1932. Rereading Frederick Jackson Turner: The Significance of the Frontier in American History, And Other Essays. New York: H. Holt, 1994.

Women and Men on the Overland Trail. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979.

You may also want to look at the works of Richard Slotkin, another historian whom Dr. Faragher cites. Slotkin has written widely on the myths of the 19th century West. Start with these:

The Fatal Environment: The Myth Of The Frontier In The Age Of Industrialization, 1800-1890. New York: Atheneum, 1985.

Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America. New York: Atheneum l, 1992.

Here’s a booklength study of the effect of the West on American culture and myth:

Richard Aquila, ed. Wanted Dead or Alive: The American West in Popular Culture. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996.

You’ll certainly want to look at Dr. Faragher’s study of the Daniel Boone myth:

Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer. New York: Holt, 1992.

And this good modern edition of Boone’s “Life”:

Lofaro, Michael A., ed. The Life and Adventures of Daniel Boone. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986.

For more information on Cooper’s role in creating the American frontier hero, see:

Kelly, William P. Plotting America's Past: Fenimore Cooper And The Leatherstocking Tales. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983.

In part because they both died at the Alamo, Croquet and Bowie have inspired dozens of studies. Look at these first:

Davis, William C. Three Roads To The Alamo: The Lives And Fortunes Of David Crockett, James Bowie, And William Barret Travis. New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1998.

Groneman, William. David Crockett: Hero Of The Common Man. New York: Forge, 2005.

Lofaro, Michael A., and Joe Cummings, eds. Crockett At Two Hundred: New Perspectives On The Man And The Myth. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989.

Lofaro, Michael A. Davy Crockett: The Man, The Legend, The Legacy, 1786-1986. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, c1985.

Jesse and Frank James haven’t been neglected either:

Stiles, T. J. Jesse James: Last Rebel Of The Civil War. New York: A.A. Knopf: Distributed by Random House, 2002.

Smith, Robert B. The Last Hurrah Of The James-Younger Gang. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001.

If you want to look at the broader question of the evolution of “Westerns” as popular reading, these recent books are an excellent start:

Alter, Judy, and A.T. Row, eds. Unbridled Spirits: Short Fiction About Women In The Old West. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1994.

Bold, Christine. Selling The Wild West: Popular Western Fiction, 1860 to 1960. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.

Brown, Bill, ed. Reading The West: An Anthology Of Dime Westerns. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.

Canfield, J. Douglas. Mavericks On The Border: The Early Southwest In Historical Fiction And Film. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001.

Jones, Daryl. The Dime Novel Western. Bowling Green, Ohio: Popular Press, Bowling Green University, 1978.

Klein, Marcus. Easterns, Westerns, And Private Eyes: American Matters, 1870- 1900. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, c1994.

Tuska, Jon, ed. The American West In Fiction. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.

For Buffalo Bill, don’t forget the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, cited in “General Resources," above. The most recent book on Cody is Louis Warren’s prizewinning:

Buffalo Bill's America: William Cody and the Wild West Show. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.

But these earlier studies on Cody and members of his Wild West troupe are also valuable:

Bridger, Bobby. Buffalo Bill And Sitting Bull: Inventing The Wild West. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002.

Carter, Robert A. Buffalo Bill Cody: The Man Behind The Legend. New York: J. Wiley, 2000.

McMurtry, Larry. The Colonel And Little Missie: Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, And The Beginnings Of Superstardom In America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.

Sayers, Isabelle S. Annie Oakley And Buffalo Bill's Wild West. New York: Dover Publications, 1981.

We could do an entire issue on “Westerns” on the big screen. These books are just a start for looking at the broad history of this genre and some early films:

Fagen, Herb. The Encyclopedia Of Westerns. New York: Facts On File/Checkmark Books, 2002.

Corkin, Stanley. Cowboys As Cold Warriors: The Western And U.S. History. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004.

Rollins, Peter C., and John E. O'Connor, eds. Hollywood's West: The American Frontier In Film, Television, And History. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2005.

Simmon, Scott. The Invention Of The Western Film: A Cultural History Of The Genre’s First Half-Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Smith, Andrew Brodie. Shooting Cowboys And Indians: Silent Western Films, American Culture, And The Birth Of Hollywood. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2003.

Owen Wister’s novel The Virginian hasn’t been out of print since its publication more than 100 years ago. These authors study the phenomenon of Wister’s book and the cowboy hero he invented:

Cobbs, John L. Owen Wister. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1984.

Payne, Darwin. Owen Wister, Chronicler Of The West, Gentleman Of The East. Dallas, TX: Southern Methodist University Press, 1985.

White, G. Edward. The Eastern Establishment And The Western Experience: The West Of Frederic Remington, Theodore Roosevelt, And Owen Wister. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1968.

Historians who focus on more recent Western filmmakers mentioned in the essay include:

Cowie, Peter. John Ford and the American West. New York: H.N. Abrams, 2004.

Davis, Ronald L. John Ford: Hollywood's Old Master. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1995.

McGilligan, Patrick. Clint: The Life And Legend. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.

Westerns on smaller screens are discussed ably in this book, written by a schoolmate of mine from Upstate New York:

Yoggy, Gary A. Riding The Video Range: The Rise And Fall Of The Western On Television. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1995.

This collection of essays includes helpful reflections on the Western genre:

Elution, Richard W. Telling Western Stories: From Buffalo Bill To Larry McMurtry. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999. Essays based on Etulain’s contributions to the Calvin Horn Lectures.

Finally, you and your students may enjoy taking a closer look at Larry McMurtry’s 1985 novel, Lonesome Dove (New York: Simon and Schuster), still easily available in hardcover and paper back editions, and some of the critical studies of the book and its part in the evolution of Western mythology:

Busby, Mark. Larry McMurtry And The West: An Ambivalent Relationship. Denton, Tex.: University of North Texas Press, 1995.

West, Elliott. “On the Trail with Gus and Call: Lonesome Dove and the Western Myth”, an essay in Novel History: Historians and Novelists Confront America's Past (And Each Other), ed. Mark C. Carnes. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001

Internet resources:

I’ll just skim the surface here. Be sure to look at the websites I recommended for “general” purposes for this issue (especially the Buffalo Bill Center, of course), and take a look at some of these more specialized URL’s:

Legends of America Same site has excellent section on Western “legends,” from the heroes of 19th century dime novels to 20th and 21st century cowboys on large and small screen:

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/LA-OldWestLegends.html

For a fulltext version of Daniel Boone’s 1784 “Adventures”:

http://www.earlyamerica.com/lives/boone/index.html

Also take a look at this Website maintained by Boone’s descendants:

http://www.danielboonefamily.org/danielb/dedication.shtml

This University of Virginia site has brief sketch of Crockett and fulltext of his “Bear Hunting in Tennessee”:

http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/price/acrocket.htm

“Handbook of Texas Online” has excellent sketch of Crockett by Michael Lofaro:

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/CC/fcr24.html

And one on Bowie, by William Williamson:

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/BB/fbo45.html

The Wikipedia entry on dime novels is really first-rate:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dime_novel

These Stanford and the Library of Congress Websites provide good essays and images in their “virtual exhibitions” on dime novels:

http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/dp/pennies/home.html

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tri015.html

For the Great Train Robbery, the Wikipedia entry will serve you well, and you can download the film from the American Memory Website:

http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/gtr.html

Filmsite.org provides good background information and plot summary for the film:

http://www.filmsite.org/grea.html

Both Bibliomania.com and the University of Virginia offer fulltexts of The Virginian

http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/58/105/frameset.html

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wister/cover.html

The University of Wyoming has a very nice virtual exhibition devoted to Wister and his most famous book and its life on stage and film:

http://ahc.uwyo.edu/onlinecollections/exhibits/virginian/default.htm

This website for the PBS “American Experience” broadcast on the James-Younger gang. Includes a teacher’s guide with sketches of gang members, information on their crimes and exploits (including contemporary newspaper accounts):

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/james/index.html