# Who Was The Last American Writer to Experience (Personally) the "Old West"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-american-writer-to-experience-personally-the-old-west/583133>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 25, 2011, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-american-writer-to-experience-personally-the-old-west/583133 "2011-05-25T11:49:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-american-writer-to-experience-personally-the-old-west/583133/21 "2011-05-26T12:22:38Z")

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> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> I suppose it depends on what you consider to be the Old West. Larry McMurtry grew up on a Texas ranch in the thirties and forties.

And he grew up hearing stories about The Old West from family members. He established his reputation as a writer of The New West before he wrote _Lonesome Dove_–which includes bits of those old stories.

Darn, I hadn’t heard [this](http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2011/05/ken_keseys_widow_married_larry.html):

> [@](#):
>
> Faye Kesey, the widow of Oregon author Ken Kesey, married another well-known writer, Larry McMurtry, in McMurtry’s hometown of Archer City, Texas, on April 29, the day of the royal wedding. Faye Kesey is 76. McMurtry, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Lonesome Dove” and many other novels, is 74.

(Read about The Acid Test at Rice University [here](http://lysergia_2.tripod.com/MerryPranksters/lamaMerryPranksters.htm). I lived in Houston at the time but only heard the later legends. Yup, Tales of The New West.)

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**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-american-writer-to-experience-personally-the-old-west/583133/22 "2011-05-26T13:48:53Z")

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Zane Grey (January 31, 1872 – October 23, 1939) fits well into the old west time period.

But he grew up in Zanesville, Ohio. His dad a dentist.

I find his Westerns very fanciful and definitely fiction.

I second Laura Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) as the best example of authentic oral history. She documented her childhood on the prairies in great detail. Completely different life than the cowboys and gold miners often associated with the old west.

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