Trailin'

By Max Brand

Book Overview

"I love Max Brand," said Stephen King. The master of horror is not alone, for the ace of horse operas continues to attract new readers. Trailin' was an early novel full of the gusto and terse, fresh style that would make Brand's reputation. A Wild West story, Trailin' opens in Madison Square Garden, where Anthony Woodbury accepts a challenge to ride a killer horse. When the man supposed to be his father is murdered, Woodbury follows the trail of the slayer west. As he pursues the secret of his birth, he takes huge risks that only a tenderfoot would entertain. "The story undeniably grips," wrote the reviewer for Anteneum when it was first published in 19200. Shortly after, popular star of western films Tom Mix appeared in a movie version.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080321247X
• ISBN13: 9780803212473
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 375 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.0" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Trailin' - Good Introduction to Max Brand's Mythical West

Richard Etulain, a history professor at University of New Mexico and editor of this 1994 University of Nebraska Press edition of Trailin' (1920), rightly cautions that not all readers will find Brand's pulp westerns entirely satisfactory. He does argue, however, that Trailin' - one of Brand's early westerns - warrants reading (and I agree) as it vividly illustrates Brand's almost magical, archetypal western that was so popular in the years before World War II. The setting in Trailin' is vague and uncertain, and apparently this is typical of Max Brand's stories. We only know that it occurs somewhere in Brand's mythical west. (Contrastingly, Louis L'Amour's geography and landmarks were carefully researched.) Brand's characters are nearly as mythical as his geography. The hero in Trailin', Anthony Bard, overcomes all obstacles to track the killer of his father across the open plains and mountains of the wild west. Bard's success is especially remarkable as he had no prior wilderness experience, having been raised in a wealthy setting in New York. His cold, calculating adversary, Steve Nash, is a classic villain, one who even resorts to killing Bard's horse. The action-packed plot had some unexpected twists, but ultimately the ending seem contrived, revealing a secret that could have been disclosed much earlier. Max Brand was one of the many pseudonyms of Frederick Schiller Faust, creator of more than 350 westerns in the 1920s and 1930s. Today, classics like Shane, The Big Sky, The Virginian, Lonesome Dove, The Ox-Bow Incident, and Monte Walsh as well as L'Amour's popular fiction largely overshadow Brand's novels. Nonetheless, despite a notable lack of verisimilitude, Max Brand's action tales offer enjoyable, light reading for fans of westerns.