Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old Father Of Waters | 1928 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 2 | Thunder In The Dust | 1936 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 3 | Winter Range | 1938 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 4 | Useless Cowboy | 1944 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 5 | Hell For Breakfast | 1947 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 6 | The Smoky Years | 1948 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 7 | Cattle Kingdom | 1948 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 8 | Wild Justice | 1948 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 9 | Gunsight Trail | 1949 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 10 | The Searchers | 1954 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 11 | Painted Ponies | 1956 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 12 | The Unforgiven | 1957 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 13 | Unforgiven | 1957 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 14 | By Dim And Flaring Lamps | 1962 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 15 | The Bold West, Volume 24 | 2000 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 16 | Pelican Coast | 2004 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
| 17 | The Bold West | 2009 | Alan LeMay | Buy |
Alan LeMay wrote standalone Western novels over a career spanning several decades, beginning with Old Father Of Waters in 1928. His books are set across the American frontier and deal with cattle ranching, frontier justice, settler conflicts, and the complicated relationships between settlers and Native Americans.
His most celebrated standalone work is The Searchers (1954), about a Civil War veteran’s years-long quest to find his niece after she is taken by Comanche raiders. The novel was turned into the landmark 1956 John Wayne film. LeMay followed it with The Unforgiven, another story about frontier families and racial tensions, which was adapted with Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn. Several of his earlier novels like The Smoky Years, Cattle Kingdom, and Gunsight Trail are solid entries in the traditional Western genre that remain enjoyable reads for fans of frontier fiction.