Books with author Rick Steber

Great-grandfather has witnessed so much change in his life. When he was a boy the horse and buggy was the mode of transportation. He has lived to see aviation progress from a few barnstorming pilots hop-scotching across the country to jet aircraft thundering across the sky. And he was sitting there that day, in front of the television, when men walked on the moon. All the years and hard work have taken their toll but when he is seated in his favorite rocking chair, great-grandchildren scattered at his feet, his eyes sparkle as lively as they must have in his youth. He exuberantly recounts the past, painting vivid pictures of his life on the western frontier as a pioneer, miner, freighter, stage driver, Indian fighter, trapper, homesteader, logger, buckaroo .... The story over, he waits, and then a small voice implores, 'Grandpa, tell us another story, please.' Grandpa grins, 'Well, all right. Once a long, looong, looooong time ago....'

Kindle unlimited exclusive! The first 4 books in the Tales of the Wild West Series, it includes Oregon Trail, Pacific Coast, Indians, and Cowboys.One of the great things about the West is that our history lies so close to the surface. It was our grand parents and parents who were the pioneers.The first wagon train west arrived late in the fall of 1843. It is estimated one-half million emigrants traveled this great wagon trail, until the advent of the automobile ended the era in the early 1900s. Today stretches of the Oregon Trail are still visible as ruts -ruts carved into the earth, worn by time and masked by wildflowers, sagebrush and trees.REVIEWERS SAY“Rick Steber has given us a fine example of how fiction can tell the grim facts of history in a highly readable novel. Buy the Chief a Cadillac is one of those books which should be added to the reading lists of students of American history.” (Tony Hillerman) “Steber's words remind you of Hemingway or Fitzgerald....” (LA Times)“Rick Steber captures beautifully the mood of the times and of the sturdy people who lived it.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)Rick Steber has more than 40 titles under his belt and sales of nearly two million books. Rick has won the prestigious Western Writers of America Spur Award and numerous other awards. He is a keen observer of the changing American West and he articulates these changes in prose that are boldly descriptive, invigorating and creative. His writing has been compared to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, McMurtry and Stegner. Three of his books have been optioned to movie production companies.In addition to his writing, Rick is an engaging Western personality and has the unique ability to make his characters come alive as he tells a story. He has spoken at many national and international conferences and visits schools where he talks to students about the importance of education, developing reading and writing skills, and impressing upon them the value of saving our history for future generations.Rick writes in a cabin in the timbered foothills of the Ochoco Mountain

Kindle Unlimited Exclusive!This is an anthology of books 5 through 8 of the Tales of the Wild West Series, including the following titles: Women of the West, Children's Stories, Loggers, and Mountain MenThese short stories are artfully woven by Rick Steber and are appropriate for all ages. The first white children to come west were sons and daughters of the pioneers. They trudged barefooted beside the wagons, across the dusty plains, through the heat and the prickly pear cactus and over the mountains of sharp volcanic rocks. Some never made it and piles of stones and improvised crosses marked their graves.Those who survived found a wonderful playground out west. A playground of bright-colored rocks, slow-moving streams, wide-open spaces and deep, dark forests. Mothers watched over their young because if a child wandered away, he or she might be carried off by a wild animal or stolen by lndians.Children of the frontier were seasoned to a hard life. They had to be strong and resilient and were forced to grow up quickly. By the time a boy was eight or nine he knew how to handle a rifle and hunted wild game for meat. He helped his father clear land, split rails, build fence and farm with a team of horses. Girls worked beside their mothers, picking wild berries, making lye soap, rendering hogs, washing on a scrub board, cooking over a wood stove.... The list of time-consuming chores went on and on. By the time a girl was fourteen or fifteen she was ready to marry and start a family of her own and the circle of life continued.Rick Steber has more than 40 titles under his belt and sales of nearly two million books. Rick has won the prestigious Western Writers of America Spur Award and numerous other awards. He is a keen observer of the changing American West and he articulates these changes in prose that are boldly descriptive, invigorating and creative. His writing has been compared to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, McMurtry and Stegner. Three of his books have been optioned to movie production companies.In addition to his writing, Rick is an engaging Western personality and has the unique ability to make his characters come alive as he tells a story. He has spoken at many national and international conferences and visits schools where he talks to students about the importance of education, developing reading and writing skills, and impressing upon them the value of saving our history for future generations.Rick writes in a cabin in the timbered foothills of the Ochoco Mountains.REVIEWERS SAY“Rick Steber has given us a fine example of how fiction can tell the grim facts of history in a highly readable novel. Buy the Chief a Cadillac is one of those books which should be added to the reading lists of students of American history.” (Tony Hillerman) “Steber's words remind you of Hemingway or Fitzgerald....” (LA Times)“Rick Steber captures beautifully the mood of the times and of the sturdy people who lived it.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

The men who ride the open range of the far West are known under a variety of names: vaquero, range rider, mustanger and buckaroo, but the name most commonly known is cowboy. The nature of a cowboy's work demands independence and toughness. He is a man of action; yet the long, lonely hours spent in the saddle provide ample time to develop a unique outlook on life. Simply put, a cowboy's tenet is, 'What cannot be cured is endured.' And endured with cheerfulness and good humor. It is far better to joke about the droughts, windstorms, blizzards, outlaw mustangs and loco cattle than to complain. The cowboy would never have existed without his horse. Like the cowboy, the horse is referred to by an assortment of names: mustang, bronco, cayuse and, sometimes, jughead, broomtail, nag, hay burner, plug and other even less complimentary epithets. The ancestors of the western horse date back to the animals brought to America by Cortez and the conquistadores. As the Spanish mounts escaped, were lost or stolen, the horse began its phenomenal spread across western North America. The high desert was first settled by daring stockmen who drove in foundation herds, numbering in the thousands. The cattle thrived on the native grasses and when the steers were ready for market, cowboys on horseback drove them to railroad towns in the Midwest. With the invention of barbed wire in 1874 and an influx of homesteaders who claimed waterholes and divided up the range, the heyday of the big outfits and their cowboys passed into history. But as long as there is open sky, rimrock, bunch grass, sagebrush and juniper, cowboys will still ride the range.

Kindle Unlimited Exclusive!Tales of Wild West is a series of short stories that are artfully woven together by Rick Steber for a fun and engaging read for all ages.This anthology from the Tales of the Wild West series includes books 13 to 16, this includes the following titles: Tall Tales, Gunfighters, Grandma's Stories and Western Heroess. Through bravery, courage and strength of character these men and women stood head and shoulders above their contemporaries.They are our true Western American Heroes.About the AuthorRick Steber has more than 40 titles under his belt and sales of nearly two million books. Rick has won the prestigious Western Writers of America Spur Award and numerous other awards. He is a keen observer of the changing American West and he articulates these changes in prose that are boldly descriptive, invigorating and creative. His writing has been compared to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, McMurtry and Stegner. Three of his books have been optioned to movie production companies.In addition to his writing, Rick is an engaging Western personality and has the unique ability to make his characters come alive as he tells a story. He has spoken at many national and international conferences and visits schools where he talks to students about the importance of education, developing reading and writing skills, and impressing upon them the value of saving our history for future generations.Rick writes in a cabin in the timbered foothills of the Ochoco Mountains.REVIEWERS SAY“Rick Steber has given us a fine example of how fiction can tell the grim facts of history in a highly readable novel. Buy the Chief a Cadillac is one of those books which should be added to the reading lists of students of American history.” (Tony Hillerman) “Steber's words remind you of Hemingway or Fitzgerald....” (LA Times)“Rick Steber captures beautifully the mood of the times and of the sturdy people who lived it.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)REVIEWERS SAY“Rick Steber has given us a fine example of how fiction can tell the grim facts of history in a highly readable novel. Buy the Chief a Cadillac is one of those books which should be added to the reading lists of students of American history.” (Tony Hillerman) “Steber's words remind you of Hemingway or Fitzgerald....” (LA Times)“Rick Steber captures beautifully the mood of the times and of the sturdy people who lived it.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Kindle Unlimited Exclusive! An anthology of books 9 to 12 in the Tales of the Wild West Series, including Miners, Grandpa's Stories, Pioneers, and Campfire Stories. Rick Steber weaves these short stories together into a enjoyable and engaging series of short stories appropriate for all ages.Born into every generation are a few restless souls who long for adventure. In the early 1800s this wild breed became mountain men who headed up the Missouri, crossed the Rockies and continued west, hunting, trapping and exploring as they went.One mountainman, reflecting the general attitude of the day, wrote, 'We found the richest place for beaver we had yet come across, and it took us forty days to clean that section.' Valley by valley, stream by stream, the mountain men eliminated the beaver. They reasoned they would never pass that way again and, anyway, why should they leave fur for the competition?A typical mountain man had grown up in Kentucky, Virginia or Tennessee hunting squirrels, deer, coon and turkey gobblers. When civilization pressed in he escaped, in search of places no white man had been. Where beaver were plentiful and would come easily to his traps. Where there were no property lines. No neighbors. No boundaries. Where he could come and go as he pleased and the world, as far as the eye could see, was his. The heyday of the mountain men spanned only a few short decades. By the 1840s wagon pioneers were flooding into the West. And the free-roaming mountain men disappeared.Rick Steber has more than 40 titles under his belt and sales of nearly two million books. Rick has won the prestigious Western Writers of America Spur Award and numerous other awards. He is a keen observer of the changing American West and he articulates these changes in prose that are boldly descriptive, invigorating and creative. His writing has been compared to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, McMurtry and Stegner. Three of his books have been optioned to movie production companies.In addition to his writing, Rick is an engaging Western personality and has the unique ability to make his characters come alive as he tells a story. He has spoken at many national and international conferences and visits schools where he talks to students about the importance of education, developing reading and writing skills, and impressing upon them the value of saving our history for future generations.Rick writes in a cabin in the timbered foothills of the Ochoco Mountains.REVIEWERS SAY“Rick Steber has given us a fine example of how fiction can tell the grim facts of history in a highly readable novel. Buy the Chief a Cadillac is one of those books which should be added to the reading lists of students of American history.” (Tony Hillerman) “Steber's words remind you of Hemingway or Fitzgerald....” (LA Times)“Rick Steber captures beautifully the mood of the times and of the sturdy people who lived it.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Early-day women of the West are depicted in fading photographs: a gaunt, bonneted figure in a long dress walking beside a wagon, baby cradled in her arms, children scattered behind, a woman, looking older than her years, stirring lye soap over an open fire, a dancehall girl on stage, miners watching her every move.... Letters and diaries tell the details of these women's existence, the sorrow of being uprooted from family and friends, the yearning for companionship of other women, bearing children without the benefit of a doctor and trying to rear them in an uncivilized land. One turn-of-the-century, Western historian noted, 'With the coming of woman came also the graces of life, better social order and conditions, and increased regard for the amenities of life.' Eastern women were relegated to conduct themselves within strictly-established social boundaries. Western women were allowed more freedom to stretch their wings and explore the realm of their existence. And in the process they tamed the wild West.

Born into every generation are a few restless souls who long for adventure. In the early 1800s this wild breed became mountain men who headed up the Missouri, crossed the Rock-ies and continued west, hunting, trapping and exploring as they went. One mountainman,reflecting the general attitude of the day, wrote, 'We found the richest place for beaver we had yet come across, and it took us forty days to clean that section.' Valley by valley, stream by stream, the mountain men eliminated the beaver. They reasoned they would never pass that way again and, anyway, why should they leave fur for the competition? A typical mountain man had grown up in Kentucky, Virginia or Tennessee hunting squirrels, deer, coon and turkey gobblers. When civilization pressed in he escaped, in search of places no white man had been. Where beaver were plentiful and would come easily to his traps. Where there were no property lines. No neighbors. No boundaries. Where he could come and go as he pleased and the world, as far as the eye could see, was his. The heyday of the mountain men spanned only a few short decades. By the 1840s wagon pioneers were flooding into the West. And the free-roaming mountain men disappeared.

Logging in North America began with the arrival of European colonists in the 1600s. In a few short decades there were water-powered sawmills scattered up and down the eastern seaboard with the main concentration in northern New England. The lumber was used to build ships, furniture, kegs and barrels, buggies and wagons. As the loggers cleared areas in the forest, others arrived to farm the ground.It took 200 years for the timber to be logged from the eastern seaboard. The loggers and lumbermen moved inland to the Great Lakes region and when they had high graded the timber there, they continued west to northern California and the Pacific Northwest.Lumberman Samuel Wilkeson wrote in 1869, on viewing the Western forests for the first time, 'Oh! What timber! These trees so enchain the sense of the grand and so enchant the sense of the beautiful that I am loth to depart. Forests in which you cannot ride a horse - forests into which you cannot see, and which are almost dark under a bright midday sun - such forests containing firs, cedars, pine, spruce and hemlock - forests surpassing the woods of all the rest of the globe in their size, quantity and quality of the timber. Here can be found great trees, monarchs to whom all worshipful men inevitably lift their hats.'