Showing results by author "Max Brand" in All Categories

This was the first effort by Frederick Faust aimed at writing a Western, and he used the pen name of Max Brand to produce it. There was a different style of literary focus, a variance that brought forth feelings of melodrama. However, as the story developed, that impression was changed drastically with startling examples of action, conflict, and revenge that set it apart. It was regarded as one of his most successful efforts in a career that produced perhaps as many as 25 to 30 million words, resulting in well more than 500 novels and short stories.

Harry Destry was a rough-and-tumble fighter who never lost a battle. But after six years in jail for a robbery he didn't commit, he comes back a changed man. The townsfolk believe he's beaten. They think all the fight's gone right out of him. And that's exactly what Destry wants them to think....

The Red Well is called that by Jerry Finnegan when the water in the well on his ranch turns that color. Finnegan asks Charlie Kimball to help him defend the ranch and protect his wife Sarah andyoung son from the threat of death by Slade and his gang. Slade wants the ranch and will murderto get it if Finnegan refuses to sell. For Charlie Kimball the reason driving Slade can only be thered water in the well.

As he rode into Dunphyville, Dan Harrigan noted the broken windows, smashed doors, collapsing verandas. The Blacksmith's shop had been set on fire, the saloon wrecked, and the general store shot up. He nodded knowingly. There were only a dozen buildings in this small town, but they all bore the Mark of Angus "Black" MacTee. Dan Harrigan and Angus MacTee were friends and partners once; but their mutual love for pretty Kate Malone had turned them into Mortal Enemies.

Every fall Tom Reynard, ramrod for the Bar L, had a hard time finding cowpunchers willing to work the winter range in the bleak badlands near the Sioux reservation. So when Jigger Bunts, an 18-year-old from New York who was familiar with riding and roping, happened along, he was hired even though his youth was a red flag to Reynard. To pass the time in the bunkhouse, the other cowhands spin tall tales for Bunts, whom they call the kid, about the exploits of Reynard, and soon Reynard becomes Bunts' hero and role model.

Versatility was a key talent of author Frederick Faust using the pseudonym Max Brand. What you’re about to hear is one of his lesser known stories that ranks as a prime example of his stupendous ability.

After 10 years of wandering, during which he has lived the life of a gambler and learned the ways of devious men, Tom Keene returns home, only to find his father alone and dying. Old John Keene’s sole legacy to his son is a Bible, so with his father’s passing, Tom Keene renounces his selfish, worthless past and sets out to preach to others that the greatest happiness is born of trust in one another.

Smoke Bellew enters a remote Mormon settlement only a jump ahead of a posse. Finding employment as a ranch hand working for a dowager Mormon, Smoke finds that his life undergoes a transformation and he is able to make her ranch a financial success, at the same time falling in love with her wanton daughter, Rebecca. But it is too good to last. The law follows him.

A collection of classic Western tales including From Missouri by Zane Grey, Over the Northern Border by Max Brand and Riders of the Dawn by Louis L'Amour.

Speedy probably had a last name, but no one knows it--a young man, a loafer, a drifter, a tramp. He does not usually use a gun, although in "Nighthawk Trail" he does, but it is only an elaborate illusion. Speedy is regarded as one of the most dangerous men in the West. The object of his quest is to find the great horse Nighthawk, bought for $7,000 by old Joshua Crane.

Notorious outlaw Lawrence Grey has been captured near El Paso. Marshal Neilan has a proposal for him. Neilan will set Grey free if he tries to locate John Ray, a man who was last known to be living in San Vicente, Mexico. The men Neilan sent previously have disappeared or quit the job....

His name is Dan Barry, and they call him "the Manslayer." His best friend is a savage wolf dog no other man can touch. They say his gun is faster than summer lightning and has never missed its mark. They say no bullet yet cast can kill him. His lifeblood is danger, and it flows with the cool recklessness of a surging mountain stream.

In Traynor, the title character is believed to be a weak young man, having let Dr. Parker Channing steal his love, Rose Laymon, away from him. When the stage Traynor is driving into Little Snake is robbed and Traynor’s best friend and stage guard, Sam Whitney, is killed by the robber, Traynor chases the thief and recovers his dropped Stetson, which was sold to Dr. Channing less than a month earlier. In Luck and a Horse, Tommy Grant works day and night on the farm of the tyrant and master manipulator Sylvester Train, who has not paid him for 19 months.

Werewolf by Max Brand in Western Story Magazine (12/18/26) involves just such an inward journey for Christopher Royal, who is convinced he is a coward and flees a confrontation with Harry Main, who is a gunfighter. There comes a time in this story - when Christopher encounters the aged Indian, the old wise man - that the terrain shimmers with the multiple affinities of meaning conjured by the unconscious, which Vergil once sought to capture within an image both awesome and sinister: numina magna deum [the great divine power of a god].

Don Sebastian Valdivia and his secretary, Juan Carreño, attend a horse auction at the Garrison Ranch, where an outlaw stallion, Twilight, is held back until last. The only man who can ride this magnificent beast is Charles Dupont, known as the Crisco Kid, who has bonded with the horse since he was a colt.Because gunman Bud Carew despises the Kid, he desperately wants to possess Twilight. Those attending the auction know that no matter who wins, a gunfight is sure to follow.

When you hear the term "western tales" most likely the name Zane Grey pops into your mind. but these three authors who lived around the same time as Grey are a welcome addition to Western Lore. This boxed set includes stories by either contemporaries of, or authors who followed in the footsteps of Zane Grey. Max Brand, a major influencer of Louis Lamour, Charles Selzer who lived in Zane's shadow for most of his life, and Jim Kirkegaard, who came later but had the same love of the outdoors and adventure as all of these writers.

Frederick Faust (pen name Max Brand) was said to have written in excess of twenty-five million words as he seemed to have a button to push to generate fictional ideas. Of course, it’s known that much of his work was issued under pen names, around twenty of them, a great many of them wild Westerns. This one that features a drifter named Donnegan. He gets off a train and takes on a job with a rich man who doesn’t seem to care much about the difference between rights and wrongs.

This is the rousing story of Cheyenne, a gunfighter whose shooting hand was badly wounded by a bullet and now he cannot draw his gun. Word got around that he was a coward, a "yellow dog," and soon in uneven battle with his enemies, he finds his redemption.

The knife missed him by a fraction of an inch! Then he reached under his pillow, grabbed his gun and fired into the darkness. If Alvarez survives, he'll look for one man, an unbeatable bodyguard or the assassin who wants him dead. Either will do.

Haypress feeding is a brutal test of strength that can kill a man. Cafferty isn't worried. He's going after Frenchie's record anyway - the prize is a dream come true.