Owen Wister invented the Western novel with The Virginian, and that work and this collection of stories prove that, although many have gone after him, no one has ever topped him in skill and enduring appeal. Wister saw the story of the West as a collision of centuries, with the Stone Age, the Middle Ages, and the modern world coming together to form a new place and a new people. Wister said of this collection, "These stories are about Indians and soldiers and events west of the Missouri. They belong to the past . . . but you will find some of those ancient surviving centuries in them if you take my view." Here are unforgettable characters: Specimen Jones, the taciturn and capable rider from an unknown past, who has no use for fools and even less for bullies; General Crook and his men, who do the Government's dirty work on the frontier and get no thanks for it; and unregenerate Rebels and Union veterans in an uneasy frontier political alliance.