By zealous research, keen observation, and wide-ranging and deeply probing commentary, Mari Sandoz has become one of the most famous and well-respected interpreters of the American West. Old Jules Country is made up of the region that Sandoz has written about most frequently -- the High Plains of the Dakotas, Montana, Nebraska, and Wyoming -- the Black Hills, the Bad Lands, the sandhills, and the great rivers: the Missouri, the Platte, and the Yellowstone.

Here are selections from the six volumes of her acclaimed Great Plains Series -- The Beaver Men, Crazy Horse, Cheyenne Autumn, The Buffalo Hunters, The Cattlemen, and Old Jules -- and from her study of a great people, These Were the Sioux. Also included are two essays, "The Lost Sitting Bull" and "The Homestead in Perspective". A Cheyenne prayer and two sketches unavailable elsewhere -- "Snakes" and "Coyotes and Eagles" -- complete the collection.

This anthology provides a stimulating sampling for readers not yet acquainted with Sandoz's work. For her extensive following, it offers the opportunity for a satisfying reappraisal of her overall achievement.