Literary Cowboys Trivia Quiz

Answer: Louis L'Amour

L'Amour always referred to his novels, not as westerns but as frontier stories, and even had plans to build a typical frontier town named Shalako at one point. In 1980 "Bendigo Shafter" won a U.S. National Book Award.

Answer: Shane

Schaefer was an Ohio native who had never been to Wyoming, where "Shane" is se,t or any of the western United States when he wrote the novel. "Shane" contains words of wisdom such as, "A gun is just a tool. No better and no worse than any other tool, a shovel - or an axe or a saddle or a stove or anything. Think of it always that way.

A gun is as good - and as bad - as the man who carries it." and "What a man knows isn't important. It's what he is that counts".

Answer: Old Yeller

"Old Yeller" was published in 1956 and has been a children's favourite for many years. Old Yeller is a faithful hound who protects the family on several occasions, including saving the younger brother of Travis from a bear and protecting Travis himself from a group of wild hogs. It spawned two sequels, "Savage Sam" (1962) and "Little Arliss" (1978).

Answer: W.E. Johns

Full of characters such as "Daddy" Moore, "Two Gun" Grundle and "Wall Eye" Gates in places such as the O-bar-O ranch, the D-bar-10 ranch and Rattlesnake Valley, where "the rattlers are as thick here as fleas on a mangy coyote", this book was a fantastic read for an English kid in his early teens like I was. Johns was himself a WWI pilot and took part in several bombing raids on Germany before being shot down in September 1918 and spending the last months of the war as a prisoner of war.

Answer: Riders Of The Purple Sage

"Riders Of The Purple Sage"(1912) is about Mormon landowner Jane Withersteen and the church's disapproval of her friendship with a non Mormon man, as well as her romantic feelings towards Lassiter when he helps her after the church elders, led by Bishop Dyer, attempt to break her spirit. Still a great read even though it is over a century old.

Answer: Charles Portis

Portis' famous novel about Mattie Ross and Rooster Cogburn was first published in serialised sections in "The Saturday Evening Post". Born and raised in Arkansas, Portis worked initially as a journalist; one of his jobs was editing the copy of various female freelance journalists.

He has credited these journalists as giving him the realistic language used by "True Grit" heroine, 14 year old Mattie Ross.

Answer: The Log Of A Cowboy

"The Log Of A Cowboy" is based on Adams' own experiences and covers all situations that a cowboy on a cattle run may encounter, from run-ins with hostile native tribes and perilous river crossings, to the not-so-exciting aspects like hours of boredom and the amount of tedious paperwork that had to be completed each day. Adams wrote several western novels, including "The Wells Brothers (1911) and its sequel, "The Ranch On The Beaver (1927).

Answer: Jack Crabb

Although "Little Big Man" is probably his best known novel, Berger wasn't just a western writer and covered several different genres, including myth and legend in "Arthur Rex: A Legendary Novel" (1978), science fiction in "Adventures of the Artificial Woman" (2004) and mystery in "Killing Time" (1967). "Little Big Man" won Berger a Western Heritage Award in 1965.

Answer: The Time It Never Rained

"The Time It Never Rained" is a great novel, told through the eyes of stubborn rancher Charlie Flagg, who, as everyone else leaves town or applies for federal aid, tries to stick to his self reliance through the drought. This book has been referred to as a "Grapes Of Wrath" for the western genre and is probably Kelton's best known work, although he did write several award winning westerns including "Way Of The Coyote" (2001) and "The Day The Cowboys Quit" (1971).

Answer: Forrest Gump

"El Paso" is a modern western that still retains all of the aspects required to rank it up there with classic works. When, during a cattle drive, Villa kidnaps the grandchildren of a railroad tycoon, the businessman tries to hire gunmen to hunt Villa down. Well worth a read if you are a fan of western literature.