''The Trailsman'' is a series of short
Western novel
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 20th century and ...
s published since 1980 by
Signet books, a division of
New American Library
The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publishe ...
. The series is still published under the name
Jon Sharpe
Jon Sharpe (April 29, 1920 - November 3, 2004) was the original author of The Trailsman series of Western novels. The century series, which has run since the early 1980s, was created by author Jon Messmann, who wrote most of the first 200 books i ...
, the original author of the series, although it is now written by a number of ghostwriters under contract. The publisher releases 12 editions of the serial a year, with longer Giant Trailsman titles appearing periodically. The first title was ''Seven Wagons West: Seven Ways to Die'', which was recently reissued in print.
''Trailsman'' stories are short, usually under 200 pages, and feature the hero,
Skye Fargo. Skye is known for his "lake blue" eyes, and despite his sexual prowess with women, he is single by choice. His sidekick is his unnamed horse, known only as "the Ovaro", and his gun of choice is a
.44 Colt
The .44 Colt is an American centerfire revolver cartridge that was produced commercially from 1871 to 1940.Barnes, p.169, ".44 Colt".
History
The cartridge was developed by Colt's Patent Firearms for use in cartridge revolvers based on the 1860 ...
.
The Trailsman series was created by John Joseph Messmann aka Jon Messmann. He wrote most of the
first 200 books in the series before retiring in the late 1990s. Messmann died in 2004. He also wrote many novels in the classic Nick Carter series. Messmann later created another western series featuring Canyon O'Grady, a western detective. In ''The Trailsman'' #87 Skye Fargo and Canyon O'Grady joined forces. Messmann got his start in writing by scripting comic books beginning in the 1940s.
David Robbins has been the principal writer of the Trailsman books since Messmann's retirement. Authors like
Robert J Randisi
Robert Joseph Randisi (born August 24, 1951) is an American author, editor and screenwriter who writes in the detective and Western genres.
Biography
Randisi has authored more than 650 published books and has edited more than 30 anthologies of sh ...
,
J. B. Keller,
Bill Crider
Bill Crider (July 28, 1941 – February 12, 2018) was an American author of crime fiction among other work.
Biography
He received a Master of Arts degree at the University of North Texas, in Denton. Later, he taught English at Howard Payne Unive ...
,
Ed Gorman,
Will C. Knott,
Robert Vardeman
Robert Edward Vardeman (sometimes called Vardebob) (born 1947) is an American science fiction fan and writer.
Career
Robert E. Vardeman was born in Mineral Wells, Texas, but is a longtime resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He graduated from ...
,
John Edward Ames
John Edward Ames (born December 30, 1949) is an American writer of novels and short stories from Toledo, Ohio. A critically acclaimed writer of western fiction, Ames began his career writing for pulp magazines before penning horror novels an ...
, and
James Reasoner
James Reasoner (5 June 1953) is an American writer. He is the author of more than 350 novels and many short stories in a career spanning more than thirty years. Reasoner has used at least nineteen pseudonyms, in addition to his own name: Jim Austin ...
have also written entries in the series. Some of the Trailsman books have been written by female novelists.
Western (genre) novels
Novel series
Signet Books books
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