Author Description

"The stories these cowboys tell are exciting and lively. Reading the book is like meeting them face to face and sharing in the active lives they led." --Plano Profile "The illustrations in this fascinating book are outstanding. The Lannings have given us a well-edited book that can be a greatly-appreciated gift." --The Pacific Historian "For all the insights into the lives and attitudes of the cowboys, however, the greatest charm for many readers will be not in the tales but in the telling.... These men and women, many of whom rarely if ever fidgeted at a school desk, show a natural and comfortable sense of language, its rhythms and infinite possibilities... these voices from the past are a delight to hear." --Southern Quarterly, Vol. 24, no. 3 "If you are a fan of history and cowboys, you may enjoy this collection. Crotchety cooks, goosy broncs and spooky steers populate the pages, and some of the adventures are so wild that you wonder just how in blazes these people lived to tell the tales." --The Lariat "All in all, I liked the book very much, and so will others who have an enthusiasm for the Texas Range Cattle Industry, and for those who served it in its heyday." --Colin Rickards "All of the accounts are more than readable; they are very interesting vignettes of trail drives and Indian scares, rustlers and `stomps' or stampedes... The book is highly recommended as accurate Americana." --Old West "This book is a contemporary selection of 33 interviews with old cowboys, culled from a herd of 400 in the Texas Rangelore Collection of the Library of Congress... Crotchety cooks, goosey broncs and spooky steers populate the pages, and some of the adventures are so wild that you wonder just how the blazes these people lived to tell the tales." --Quarter Horse Journal "These oral histories from old Texas cowhands and ranch workers tell... what everyday life in Texas was all about. The stories are plainly told, dignified, and timeless." --Fort Worth Stockya