By Jeff Baker

I don’t read a lot of Westerns and probably will never read a Western novel but I found a treasure trove of Western short-stories  while back. Bill Pronzini and Martin H. Greenberg edited a series of paperbacks each featuring stories (and a few poems!) all with a specific theme: “The Railroaders,” “The Lawmen,” “The Outlaws.” The variety in the stories is fantastic and the list of authors is a who’s-who: Owen Wister, O. Henry, Dorothy M. Johnson, Edward D. Hoch. The stories range from classics (“A Man Called Horse”) to a few (then) brand-new stories. The anthologies aren’t too hard to find and not too pricy. Well-worth it for the fine reads. (I may try writing a Western short myself some day!)