Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Great Endurance Horse Race | 1963 | Jack Schaefer | Buy |
| 2 | Heroes Without Glory | 1965 | Jack Schaefer | Buy |
| 3 | Jack Schaefer And The American West | 1978 | Jack Schaefer | Buy |
| 4 | Conversations with a Pocket Gopher | 1978 | Jack Schaefer | Buy |
Jack Schaefer spent the last decades of his life in Santa Fe, New Mexico, surrounded by the terrain and wildlife that had always fascinated him. His non-fiction books are a direct product of that fascination. The Great Endurance Horse Race (1963) is a detailed account of a grueling frontier horse race that tested the limits of horse and rider. Heroes Without Glory (1965) turns to the human side of Western history, profiling men and women who shaped the frontier but never became famous for it.
His later non-fiction became more personal. Conversations with a Pocket Gopher (1978) collects essays about the desert animals Schaefer observed from his New Mexico home, written with the same attention to detail and quiet humor that marked his best fiction. Jack Schaefer And The American West (1978) is a broader reflection on his relationship with the region. Together, these four books show an author who cared as much about the real West as the fictional one, and who brought the same honest, unadorned style to both.