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Many accounts of Old West life have been highly romanticized. In typical Western fiction, the Old West is a dry landscape populated by cowboys, Indians, outlaws, gold miners, trappers and explorers. Thus conflicts generally occurred, and still occur, over water, since land without water is of little value.
Old West fiction has been a popular genre, featuring authors such as Zane GreyZane Grey ( January 31, 1872 October 23, 1939), born Pearl Zane Gray (he later dropped "Pearl" and changed the a to an e in "Grey") was an American author of popular adventure novels and pulp fiction that presented an idealized image of the rugged Old Wes and Louis L'AmourLouis L'Amour ( March 22, 1908- June 10, 1988), was a American author of (primarily) Western fiction (see also Frontier, Western movie, and Wild West). He was born Louis Dearborn LaMoore of French-Canadian background March 22, 1908 in the American state o. MoviesThe Western movie is one of the classic American film genres. Westerns are art works films, literature, television shows and paintings devoted to telling romanticized tales of the American West. While the Western has been popular throughout the history of such as those featuring John WayneJohn Wayne ( May 26, 1907 June 11, 1979), nicknamed Duke was an American film actor whose career spanned the evolutionary phase of American cinema, appearing in silent movies and "talkies" alike. He remains, by many accounts, the most popular star in the and Clint EastwoodClint Eastwood (born May 31, 1930) is an American movie actor and director, famous for his 'tough guy' roles. These include Dirty Harry and The Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's " Spaghetti Westerns". Born in San Francisco, the son of a steel worker, Eas, radio dramas, television, pulp novels and comic books all had popular Old West themes. In German culture the genre was so popular that it spawned another, the Kraut-Western , which is alive and well even one century after its debut. Karl MayKarl Friedrich May (Hohenstein-Ernstthal, February 25, 1842 Radebeul, March 30, 1912) was the best selling German writer of all time, noted chiefly for wild west books set in the American West and similar books set in the Middle East; in addition, he also is the best-selling GermanThe word German can mean: From or related to Germany or its predecessor states see also the German language Germanic tribes Holy Roman Empire ( 843- 1806) German Confederation ( 1815- 1866) North German Confederation ( 1867 1871) German Empire ( 1871- 191 writer of all time, due to his classic Wild West adventure novels featuring the unforgettable protagonists Old Shatterhand and Winnetou.
There is a non-fiction side of the American West, too, as in, for example, Robert LaxaltRobert Laxalt is a Basque-American writer from Nevada, brother of Paul Dominique Laxalt, former governor and senator from state of Nevada. Father of also writer Monique Laxalt. Sweet Promised Land (1957) his first and possibly best-known book was based on's memoir Sweet Promised Land , in which Dominique Laxalt, his father, a Basque sheepherder, re-visits the old country. The book ends with Laxalt's desire to return to his home in Nevada: "... and he saw the mountains of the West rise up ..."
Nevertheless, the untamable mystique of the Wild West lives on... A fascination with a simpler world of salt of the Earth values, where men were men and women were damsels, fuels interest in Nashville and the Country Music scene, the rodeo circuits and the Western fashions of the 21st Century. Is it any surprise that Cowboy Action Shooting is one of the fastest growing sports today, combining marksmanship with the theatricality of an historical reenacting of the gunslinging Wild West days? The interest in the West seems eternal: maybe it's just because "a man's got to do what a man's got to do."