Jack Schaefer books

Jack Schaefer Non-Fiction Reading Order

Non-Fiction

Short Stories/Novellas

Short Story Collections

Standalone Novels

Jack Schaefer was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1907 and worked as a journalist and newspaper editor before turning to fiction. His first novel, Shane, was published in 1949 and became an immediate success. The story of a lone gunfighter who helps a homesteading family in 1880s Wyoming has since become one of the defining works of American Western literature. Schaefer wrote Shane without ever having visited the West, drawing instead on extensive reading and research.

After Shane’s success, Schaefer moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he spent the rest of his life. He wrote prolifically through the 1950s and 1960s, producing novels like Monte Walsh (1963), a sprawling portrait of a working cowboy’s life that many readers consider his finest work. His short story collections, including The Big Range (1953) and The Collected Stories of Jack Schaefer (1966), show his ability to capture the Western experience in compact, direct prose. In his later years he turned to non-fiction, writing about subjects ranging from endurance horse racing to desert wildlife. He died in Santa Fe in 1991.