Richard S. Wheeler

Gladstone Brass found out how to make his livelihood during the 30 years he prospected the arid wastes of the Nevada desert. He pried ore out of the few small deposits he discovered, then went to town - which he hated - only long enough to trade his bits of gold for the supplies he needed...

Collected here are 10 Western short stories by Richard S. Wheeler, the award-winning author who makes storytelling look easy. In "Mugs Birdsong's Crime Academy", celebrated criminal Mugs Birdsong decides to found an academy that will instruct lawmen on the ways and means of lawlessness. "The...

Two young men in the gold fields of California spend a last evening together as one of them, very sick, confronts his own imminent death. The tenderness between them may seem idealized, but you understand by listening to this story how premature death from accident and disease haunted the lives...

Wiley Smart is as sly and cunning as his fake name. Hannah Holt is like an unexpected tonic on a hot, dusty prairie. Linc Larrimer is 12, orphaned, and has a chip on his shoulder the size of a two-by-four. These three unlikely bunkmates are thrown together in a hilarious journey through Indian...