Untamed

And he enjoyed great longevity! Max Brand's first western, THE UNTAMED featured Tom Mix in its 1919 cinematic rollout, the first of three. Tyrone Power starred in the 1955 version, the most recent. How about Tom Cruise in an update?

Dust powdered his hat and clothes as Tex Calder trotted his horse north across the hills. His face was a sickly grey, and his black hair might have been an eighteenth century wig, so thoroughly was it disguised. It had been a long ride. Many a long mile wound back behind him, and still the cattle pony, with hanging head, stuck to its task. Now he was drawing out on a highland, and below him stretched the light yellow-green of the willows of the bottom land. He halted his pony and swung a leg over the horn of his saddle.

Max Brand is a pseudonym of Frderick Faust (1892-1944), who published more than three hundred western novels. Introducing The Untamed is William Bloodworth Jr., professor of English at East Carolina University. Another early novel, Trailin' (Bison Books 1994), as well as The Collected Stories of Max Brand, edited by Robert and Jane Easton, are available from the University of Nebraska Press.