The Collected Short Stories Of Jack Schaefer

the long version

In antiquity and among primitive peoples the storyteller enjoyed a unique role and had to live up to a heavy responsibility. He had to celebrate heroes (try Schaefer's story Jeremy Rodock), teach essential lessons (try Hugo Kertchak, Builder) provide emotional/sentimental release (try Stubby Pringle's Christmas), add to the historical record (try--all of them). Schaefer checks out on every angle. Nobody writes about the West like Schaefer who, almost singlehandedly, rescued the image of cowboys from the paper-thin paperbacks and the Hollywood hokum. The top brand on a prime herd.