Charles Alden Seltzer (1875–1942)

Less romantic than a Zane Grey novel, this tells the story of the early days of settlement around Tucson, Arizona. Some historical figures such as Cochise, the Apache chief do show up in the narrative. One historical incident where Cochise was enticed to come to Tucson for a peace conference by an army officer and then jailed from which he escaped but his two comrades were later hung is included in the story. However, the officer's name is changed in the novel.
While this is criticized in the story, it is not because this was immoral but rather because it would anger the Apaches and result in more killing of innocent people. The Mexican locals and natives are not treated very well either in the story or the author's biases.
The plot in brief concerns Tennessee Bob, a young frontiersman who is fair and strong, friendly with the natives and Mexicans who is hired to provide safe travel for the first runs of the Butterfield stage company from California to Arizona. He meets Anne Pritchard falling in love while trying to make Tucson into a safe community, protecting the stages from robbers and Apaches and winning Anne from rivals.… (mehr)

This is an unusual western in that the narrator is a woman, a young woman whose father owns a large ranch. She considers herself a modern woman who dos not require a man to look after her. When she discovers the man she loves has married while she was back East going to school, she decides she will marry the first qualified man she will meet. Not knowing there is a land war starting, she stumbles into being kidnapped by the ringleader and then rescued by another rancher's son.
They fall in love but refuse to tell the other person how they feel. They marry to preserve her reputation after having had to spend a night in a cabin while escaping the land raiders. Eventually the land fraud is resolved and the young people tell one another how they feel. There is a long and tense chase over rocky cliffs and through thick forest with one of the villains chasing the narrator.
This is a fast moving story by a prolific writer from the 1920's and '30's. He turned many of his books into scenarios for silent westerns starring Tom Mix and Buck Rogers.… (mehr)