The Western Fictions

The Western fictions are a genre of short stories and novels seen in literature, motion pictures, radio shows, television, and other visual arts that are set in the American Old West, usually in the period of the years 1860 and 1900.

Some of the well-known writers of the Western fictions from the early 1900s and mid 20th century are Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour. Around late 50s and early 60s, the genre captured a huge viewing audiences popularity of televised Westerns, such as Bonanza, the Big Valley, and Gunsmoke, after which their popularity faded. The readership began to drop off in the mid-to late 1970s and in the 2000s has reached a new low. Outside of a few western states, most bookstores only carry a small number of Western fictions.

Often Westerns portray how obsolete and primitive ways of life confronted the social changes, or the modern technology. This showed conflict between settlers and natives or even US cavalry. From the 1940s to 1950s, American Westerns emphasize the values of sacrifice and honor, and from the 1960s to 1970s, Westerns often have a more glorifying, rebellious anti-hero, highlighting the cynicism, pessimistic view, inequality of the American West brutality and pessimistic view. A primary example of this is battles with Native Americans.

Western has always provided a huge mine for stories of adventures, also a large number of purely commercial works that have capitalized on the basic appeal of gun slinging frontier adventurers, lawmen and desperadoes.

The Western fictions have also been America's favorite short novels and stories of adventures.