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September 26, 2023
Today in Texas History
By Bandera Spirits of Texas
The Bandera Prophet
On this day in 1935, the famed cowboy memoirist Andy Adams died. Adams, born in Indiana in 1859, was one of the few writers of the West who had a knowledge based on experience that enabled him to record cowboy life authentically.
Adams traveled to Texas in the early 1880s and remained there for 10 years, eight of which he spent in traildriving. In 1892, he drifted to gold-mining camps in Colorado and Nevada, and in 1894, moved to Colorado Springs, where he lived until his death, with the exception of one year in Nevada (1908-09) and two years in Kentucky (1920-22).
Adams was 43 when he began writing, and Texas was his literary domain. His available published works comprise seven books and one article. Because he knew the real West, he was able to write with a remarkable verisimilitude-a quality he maintained without compromise, though it led to many rejected manuscripts, since publishers seemed to demand "Wild West" stories.
The Log of a Cowboy (1903), Adams's best work, tells of a five-month drive of over 3,000 cattle from Brownsville to Montana in 1882 and has been called the best chronicle written of the great days in the cattle country.
Adams traveled to Texas in the early 1880s and remained there for 10 years, eight of which he spent in traildriving. In 1892, he drifted to gold-mining camps in Colorado and Nevada, and in 1894, moved to Colorado Springs, where he lived until his death, with the exception of one year in Nevada (1908-09) and two years in Kentucky (1920-22).
Adams was 43 when he began writing, and Texas was his literary domain. His available published works comprise seven books and one article. Because he knew the real West, he was able to write with a remarkable verisimilitude-a quality he maintained without compromise, though it led to many rejected manuscripts, since publishers seemed to demand "Wild West" stories.
The Log of a Cowboy (1903), Adams's best work, tells of a five-month drive of over 3,000 cattle from Brownsville to Montana in 1882 and has been called the best chronicle written of the great days in the cattle country.