This collection of stories portrays an Old West that is both fact and fiction. The fifty narratives are written by some of America's finest writers, including Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Jack London, Mary Austin, Ambrose Bierce, Owen Wister, Frederic Remington, Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, O. Henry, and Stewart Edward White.The reader will delight in comic tales about California charlatans, prostitutes with hearts of gold, tough, taciturn, and honorable cowboys, and heroic cavalrymen. There are razor-sharp stories of settlers struggling to survive in an unforgiving and unknown land and accounts with a rare understanding of the cultures of the American Indian.

"" 'Of Course you don't know Tom Merwin,' said Longley, almost genially. 'Yes, I know about that loan. It hasn't any security except Tom Merwin's word. Somehow, I've always found that when a man's word is good, it's the best security there is.'""-O. Henry, ""A Call Loan""