The Greatest Westerns of All Time
Click to learn how this list is calculated.
This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.
| Rank | Book | Authors | Year | Country | Language | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 198 | Blood Meridian | Cormac McCarthy | 1985 | American | English | |
| 623 | Lonesome Dove | Larry McMurtry | 1985 | American | English | |
| 751 | All the Pretty Horses | Cormac McCarthy | 1992 | American | English | |
| 839 | Winnetou | Karl May | 1893 | German | German | |
| 886 | Riders of the Purple Sage | Zane Grey | 1912 | American | English | |
| 1440 | The Virginian | Owen Wister | 1902 | American | English | |
| 1684 | Train Dreams | Denis Johnson | 2002 | American | English | |
| 2124 | True Grit | Charles Portis | 1968 | American | English | |
| 2153 | The Track Of The Cat | Walter Van Tilburg Clark | 1949 | American | English | |
| 2188 | No Country for Old Men | Cormac McCarthy | 2005 | American | English | |
| 2365 | Little Big Man | Thomas Berger | 1964 | American | English | |
| 2503 | The Prairie | James Fenimore Cooper | 1827 | American | English | |
| 2701 | Close Range | Annie Proulx | 1999 | American | English | |
| 3048 | Centennial | James A. Michener | 1974 | American | English | |
| 3313 | Roughing It | Mark Twain | 1872 | American | English | |
| 3434 | Horseman, Pass By | Larry McMurtry | 1961 | American | English | |
| 3903 | Cities of the Plain | Cormac McCarthy | 1998 | American | English | |
| 4252 | Welcome To Hard Times | E. L. Doctorow | 1960 | American | English | |
| 4309 | The Mark Of Zorro | Johnston McCulley | 1919 | American | English | |
| 4722 | The Bone is Pointed | Arthur William Upfield | 1938 | Australian | English | |
| 4734 | The Headless Horseman | Thomas Mayne Reid | 1865 | Irish | English | |
| 6261 | Shane | Jack Schaefer | 1949 | American | English | |
| 6984 | Fine Just the Way It Is | Annie Proulx | 2008 | American | English | |
| 7006 | Leaving Cheyenne | Larry McMurtry | 1963 | American | English | |
| 7051 | The Sisters Brothers | Patrick DeWitt | 2011 | Canadian | English | |
| 7215 | The Deerslayer | James Fenimore Cooper | 1841 | American | English | |
| 7688 | The Time It Never Rained | Elmer Kelton | 1973 | American | English | |
| 8546 | Forbidden | Beverly Jenkins | 2016 | American | English | |
| 8796 | Trails Plowed Under | Charles Marion Russell | 1927 | American | English | |
| 9032 | Them Old Cowboy Songs | Annie Proulx | 2008 | American | English | |
| 9279 | News Of The World | Paulette Jiles | 2016 | American | English | |
| 10036 | The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford | Ron Hansen | 1983 | American | English | |
| 10154 | The Way West | A. B. Guthrie | 1949 | American | English | |
| 10172 | The Antidote | Karen Russell | 2025 | Unknown | English | |
| 10421 | The Son | Philipp Meyer | 2013 | American | English | |
| 10821 | The Ox Bow Incident | Walter Van Tilburg Clark | 1940 | American | English | |
| 11449 | The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters | Robert Lewis Taylor | 1958 | American | English | |
| 11930 | Bad Dirt | Annie Proulx | 2004 | American | English | |
| 12170 | Tom's Crossing | Mark Z. Danielewski | 2025 | American | English | |
| 12403 | The Great Work | Sheldon Costa | 2025 | Unknown | English | |
| 12513 | Doc Susie | Virginia Cornell | 1991 | American | English | |
| 12775 | The Country Under Heaven | Frederic S. Durbin | 2025 | American | English | |
| 12807 | The Undiscovered Country | Paul Andrew Hutton | 2025 | American | English | |
| 12814 | Flanagan's Run | Tom McNab | 1982 | British | English | |
| 12925 | Amity | Nathan Harris | 2025 | American | English | |
| 13266 | Ganado Red | Susan Lowell | 1993 | American | English | |
| 13923 | The Cowboy And The Cossack | Clair Huffaker | 1973 | American | English | |
| 14815 | The Big Sky | A. B. Guthrie | 1947 | American | English | |
| 14865 | Warlock | Oakley Hall | 1958 | American | English | |
| 14983 | The Englishman's Boy | Guy Vanderhaeghe | 1996 | Canadian | English | |
| 15559 | In The Valley | Ron Rash | 2020 | American | English | |
| 15644 | The Covered Wagon | Emerson Hough | 1922 | American | English | |
| 15809 | 30,000 On The Hoof | Zane Grey | 1940 | American | English | |
| 15897 | The Searchers | Alan LeMay | 1953 | American | English | |
| 15897 | Cimarron | Edna Ferber | 1929 | American | English | |
| 15897 | Children Of God | Vardis Fisher | 1939 | American | English | |
| 16587 | Butcher's Crossing | John Williams | 1960 | American | English | |
| 16526 | The Power Of The Dog | Thomas Savage | 1967 | American | English | |
| 16530 | Lord Grizzly | Frederick Manfred | 1954 | American | English | |
| 17117 | Go in Beauty | William Eastlake | 1956 | American | English | |
| 17117 | The Bronc People | William Eastlake | 1958 | American | English | |
| 17117 | Coming Rain | Stephen Daisley | 2015 | Australian | English | |
| 17117 | The Thousand Crimes Of Ming Tsu | Tom Lin | 2021 | American | English | |
| 17117 | The Man Game | Lee Henderson | 2008 | Canadian | English | |
| 17117 | The Last Crossing | Guy Vanderhaeghe | 2002 | Canadian | English | |
| 17117 | Hondo | Louis L'Amour | 1953 | American | English | |
| 16931 | Paso Por Aqui | Eugene Manlove Rhodes | 1926 | American | English | |
| 17117 | A Distant Trumpet | Paul Horgan | 1960 | American | English | |
| 17117 | Streets Of Laredo | Larry McMurtry | 1993 | American | English | |
| 17117 | Hell And Back | Craig Johnson | 2022 | American | English | |
| 17117 | Brokeback Mountain | Annie Proulx | 2005 | American | English | |
| 17117 | Folly And Glory | Larry McMurtry | 2004 | American | English | |
| 17117 | Deadwood | Pete Dexter | 1997 | American | English | |
| 17117 | Come West And See | Maxim Loskutoff | 2018 | American | English | |
| 17117 | Winter Count | Barry Lopez | 1981 | American | English | |
| 17117 | Desperadoes | Ron Hansen | 1979 | American | English | |
| 17117 | Bounty Lands | William Ellis | 1981 | Unknown | English | |
| 17117 | Time Of The Gringo | Elliott Arnold | 1970 | Unknown | English | |
| 17117 | Taos | Irwin Blacker | 1959 | Unknown | English | |
| 17117 | A Road We Do Not Know | Frederick J. Chiaventone | 1996 | Unknown | English | |
| 17117 | The Madstone | Elizabeth Crook | 2023 | American | English | |
| 17117 | All Things Left Wild | James Wade | 2020 | American | English | |
| 17117 | The Last Go Round | Ken Ksey | American | English | ||
| 17117 | Tom Mix And Pancho Villa | Clifford Irving | 1982 | American | English |