The Old West is a series of books about the history of the American Old West era, published by Time-Life Books from 1973 through 1980. Each book focused on a different topic specific for the era, such as cowboys, American Indians, gamblers and gunfighters.
Release overview Each volume, excepting the 27th, in the series is 240 pages long, featuring many contemporary pictures and illustrations. They are bound in a padded imitation leather hardcover binding with the series name, title of the book, and publisher imprinted in gold on the spine of the book. The front cover of the book has a glued-on oval shaped picture, in most cases showcasing artwork by contemporary artists such as Frederic Remington (like the one in the infobox to the right) or Charles M. Russell – and who are otherwise heavily represented with their work on the interior pages of the series as well. Beneath the picture embossed in the faux leather is a set of cattle horns with a rising sun depicted between the horns. The outline of the cover is embossed with a rustic rope. The back cover is blank. The series was issued without a dust jacket. There are 27 volumes in the series, of which volume 27, the "Master Index", was executed as a stapled 65-page soft cover release, not featuring any illustrations:
Despite the golden age of the Western having already ended in the home market by the time the series was launched, it did manage to become one of the more popular and financially successful Time Life book series. This was further exemplified by the fact that the series remained in print for the better part of two decades, ultimately selling over three million copies in the US alone. However, it was not the series as a whole that enjoyed reprint runs, but rather the individual volumes which were reprinted according to need as some titles were more appealing to the public than the others. For example, the most popular title, volume 8 – The Gunfighters – is known to have had at least ten printings, the last one in 2004. Volume 15 – The Chroniclers – on the other hand, has only three printings known, the original printing, followed by reprints in 1979 and 1981. It is, together with the Master Index, the least reprinted volume of the series, all the others having at least four printings.
International editions Five of the more popular titles saw separate latter-day British first print versions in the UK as a standard (non-padded) hardcover in a dust jacket book format,The five UK-specific first print editions concerned, The Cowboys (2004, ), The Indians (2004, ), The Gunfighters (2004, ), The Great Chiefs (2004, ), and The Soldiers (2006, ). The fact that these were issued in dust jacket indicated that they were from the start solely intended for dissemination through the regular bookstore channel. even though British customers could originally coach along with their US counterparts by ordering the US version of the series through their nearest Time Life Books subsidiary. These five UK-specific first editions of 2004/06, featuring British spelling, were published by the London-based Caxton Publishing Group under a full license from the European "Time-Life Books B.V." (the former "Time-Life International (Nederland) B.V." Amsterdam branch) as specified in the colophons of the UK volumes, which had managed to stay in business a few years longer after the American "Time Life Books, Inc." mother division had gone defunct in 2001 as a dedicated book publisher.
As an American-specific topic, this series was not widely translated into other languages, but two identically executed foreign-language editions were nonetheless released by the "Time-Life International (Nederland) B.V." Amsterdam branch themselves; the 1978-1980 German-language Der Wilde Westen edition, which was shy of six volumes (seven when counting the "Master Index"),; and the 1978-1981 French-language Le Far West edition, equally shy of six (or seven) volumes.; That the series was partially translated into these two languages was not only due to the historical ties both France and Germany had with the era in question,France had partaken in the conquest of the Old West and Canada prior to the Louisiana Purchase, whereas 19th-century USA had seen a massive influx of German immigrants who left their noticeable mark in the history of the Old West – but which makes the absence of a Spanish language series edition all the more remarkable, considering the huge part the Spaniards/Mexicans played in the history of the Old West. but also because the Western genre has never gone out of vogue in either country, particularly in Germany where the popularity of the genre has since the days of Karl May remained unabated, unlike in native USA. As with the American edition, several of the more popular volumes saw multiple reprint runs in West-Germany. Of the most popular one, volume 8 called "Die Revolverhelden" (="The Gunfighters"), is known that it has seen at least six German-language printings.
Aside from these editions released by Time Life themselves, there were at least three additional, but far more obscure licensed international series editions known, all of them truncated; the oldest of these concerned the 1974-1975 Yugoslavian Resnična zgodovina Divjega zahoda ("The true history of the Wild West"), which was licensed to Slovenian publisher Cankarjeva Založba. Being the most obscure of the three, the extent of this slightly differently executed hardcover edition is therefore not known.; only four titles without ISBNs are known to date. Like in France and Germany, the Western had been a popular genre in Yugoslavia, before the outbreak of the wars that spelt the end of that nation. A ten-volume Japanese-language Daiseibu monogatari ("Large Western Story") edition is known to have been released by Tokyo-based publisher Taimuraihubukkusu in 1976, identical in exterior to the American source publications, but with Japanese-language interior texts. The third edition concerned the Swedish-language ten-volume Wild West release, published in 1984-85 by Swedish publisher Bokorama and likewise greatly resembling the American source publication.; ; While achieving nowhere near the numbers the Germans did, Swedish immigrants too had left their mark in the history of the Old West. As if to underscore the appeal of these two titles, "The Gunfighters" and "The Cowboys" are the only two volumes that saw printings in all six known international editions. "The Scouts" and the "Master Index" on the other hand, are the only two titles not to see a single foreign edition.
As in the UK, other language territory customers were offered the opportunity to acquire the original American version via mail through their nearest Time Life Books subsidiary, typically by series subscription.
+Volume titles of The Old West Title General consultant Volume Year published ISBN Foreign edition The Cowboys William H. Forbis01 1973 The Indians Benjamin Capps02 1973 The Trailblazers Bil Gilbert03 1973 The Soldiers David Nevin04 1973 The Railroaders Keith Wheeler05 1973 The Forty-Niners William Weber Johnson06 1974 The Pioneers Huston Horn07 1974 The Gunfighters Paul Trachtman08 1974 The Expressmen David Nevin09 1974 The Townsmen Keith Wheeler10 1975 The Great Chiefs Benjamin Capps11 1975 The Rivermen Paul O'Neill12 1975 The Texans David Nevin13 1975 The Loggers Richard Williams14 1976 The Chroniclers Keith Wheeler15 1976 The Spanish West William H. Johnson16 1976 The Miners Robert Wallace17 1976 The Canadians Ogden Tanner18 1977 The Frontiersmen Paul O'Neill19 1977 The Alaskans Keith Wheeler20 1977 The Ranchers Ogden Tanner21 1977 The Mexican War David Nevin22 1978 The Women Joan Swallow Reiter23 1978 The Scouts Keith Wheeler24 1978 The Gamblers Robert Wallace25 1978 The End and The Myth Paul O'Neill26 1979 Master Index Gail Partoyan271980
Slipcase When the series was launched the publisher tried to entice customers to take out a subscription by offering a promotional gold-imprinted hardboard slipcase which held the volumes The Ranchers, The Gunfighters and The Trailblazers.
Excerpt A 432-page abridged excerpt hardcover variant edition with dust jacket, its chapter organization roughly following the series topics, was published in October 1990 by educational publisher Prentice Hall as "The Old West" (). Though licensed to Prentice Hall, the book sported the Time Life logo on its spine. Old West historian Robert M. Utley (who had not contributed to the main series) provided the foreword for the excerpt edition.
Home market reprints Until the mid-1980s, reprints were reissued in the same format as the original printing. A few of the more popular volumes were later printed (usually after their 5th-7th printing) as more traditional hardcover editions, with new cover art and where the 1997/1999 reprints are concerned with dust jackets, but all of them dispensing with the padded faux leather cover. Since only a handful of titles were reissued as such, they were hardly recognizable as series volumes, and could easily be considered/confused as standalone editions, especially because each of them was released irregularly. Additionally, these latter-day reprints were issued in comparatively small numbers, making them quite rare in comparison to the ubiquitous faux leather editions. Furthermore, many reprints were issued with new ISBNs, especially when it concerned a revised edition.
The following titles are known to have seen latter-day reprints in a different format, The Gunfighters (1986, 1999, ) The Gamblers (1997, ) The Cowboys (1999, )
The prolific reprint runs has made the series one of the more easily obtainable Time Life book series in the used-book market, the original faux leather bound editions in particular.
Spin-offs The success of the series has enticed Time-Life to delve somewhat deeper into the subject of the Old West with follow-up releases as companion series. The first of these concerned, Classics of the Old West (1980-84, 31 volumes, ), deluxe reproductions of memoirs written by Old West contemporaries and eyewitnesses, which was started right upon the conclusion of the main series. Most of these works had actually already been used as primary reference sources for quotation/citation purposes in the main series. To further reinforce the connection between the two series, it was decided to execute the Classics in the same vein as the main series as faux leather bound volumes with embossed Old West symbology on the padded hardcover, without a cover illustration, but gilt-edged to emphasize the deluxe visual appeal of the series. This was followed by the much smaller, but very similar, from the Native American perspective related Native American Voices series. As one of Time-Life Books' most obscure series releases, only six series volumes are known to have been released in the 1991-93 time period. Time Life has repeated this formula fourfold more shortly afterwards, for their World War II, The Epic of Flight, The Civil War, and Mysteries of the Unknown series.