The Wild West: History, myth & the making of America

Written by Frederick Nolan

Narrated by Geoff Sugiyama

On 14 May 1804, one Captain Meriwether Lewis and his companion William Clark led a thirty-three-man expedition to the new lands of Louisiana. 8,000 miles and two years later, after rafting up the Missouri and crossing the Rocky Mountains, they reached the far side of the world, the Pacific Ocean.

Fredrick Nolan explores the first US settlers of the American West, including the remarkable stories of unsung heroes and heroines, the bloody battles between settlers and the native American inhabitants, the crimes committed by corrupt Sheriffs, and the occasions when citizens had to take the law into their own hands. This is the story of the men and women who answered the call of the West.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
• Release date: Mar 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9781398826854

Frederick Nolan

Frederick Nolan was born in Liverpool, and was educated there and at Aberaeron in Wales. He began writing western fiction as Frederick H. Christian, a pseudonym derived from his own, his wife Heidi's, and his older son's first names. Over the next decade, while working in publishing Nolan produced fourteen westerns and half a dozen children's books, as well as a considerable body of journalism. Between 1971 and 1975 he also edited and co-published The Gee Report, one of the most widely-read and influential international book trade publications of its time. In 1973, he quit his job and signed a contract to write eight novels in a year. The first of these, The Oshawa Project (published in the US as The Algonquin Project), was a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic, and was later filmed by MGM as Brass Target, starring Sophia Loren. Two years later came The Mittenwald Syndicate, also a major international bestseller. Since then he has written many successful thrillers (Red Center, Sweet Sister Death), biographies (Rodgers & Hammerstein: The Sound of Their Music,) childrens' books, and translations from French and German, as well as many radio and television scripts. His new edition of Pat Garrett's Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, annotated and with a series of corrective historical commentaries, was recently published by the University of Oklahoma Press. His present work includes a script for a two-part TV documentary about Billy the Kid, a history of the Texas cattle town Tascosa, and a new thriller, his first in a decade.