The vast, semi-arid grasslands of the southern Great Plains could be dominated by hunters and warriors on horseback. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Comanches, often referred to as “lords of the Plains,” were the single most powerful military force in the region, to the frustration of both the Mexican and U.S. governments. In this engrossing chronicle, award-winning journalist Gwynne traces the rise of the Comanche people from...

Men and women of uncommon cultures are bound ever more tightly in the fiery forge of the spirit and history of America. Old scores are violently settled, a Mormon family homesteads in the Utah Territories, and an outlaw vaquero with royal but bitter blood finds a new sense of place. The Sioux tribal coucil seeks answers to the dark shadows of change in the lands of the enemy Utes. The Ute chief, yearning for a son, makes a promise that spans generations...

A strange old woman caked in Montana mud pens a letter to her darling daughter back East—the writer's name is Martha Jane, but her friends call her Calamity...
I am the Wild West, no show about it. I was one of the people who kept it wild.

Larry McMurtry returns to the territory of his Pulitzer Prize–winning masterwork, Lonesome Dove, to sing the song of Calamity Jane's last ride. In a letter to her daughter...