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The Old West
The Old West is a series of books about the history of the American Old West era, published by Time-Life Books from 1973 through 1980. Each book focused on a different topic specific for the era, such as cowboys, American Indians, gamblers and gunfighters.
Each volume, excepting the 27th, in the series is 240 pages long, featuring many contemporary pictures and illustrations. They are bound in a padded imitation leather hardcover binding with the series name, title of the book, and publisher imprinted in gold on the spine of the book. The front cover of the book has a glued-on oval shaped picture, in most cases showcasing artwork by contemporary artists such as Frederic Remington (like the one in the infobox to the right) or Charles M. Russell – and who are otherwise heavily represented with their work on the interior pages of the series as well. Beneath the picture embossed in the faux leather is a set of cattle horns with a rising sun depicted between the horns. The outline of the cover is embossed with a rustic rope. The back cover is blank. The series was issued without a dust jacket. There are 27 volumes in the series, of which volume 27, the "Master Index", was executed as a stapled 65-page soft cover release, not featuring any illustrations:
Despite the golden age of the Western having already ended in the home market by the time the series was launched, it did manage to become one of the more popular and financially successful Time Life book series. This was further exemplified by the fact that the series remained in print for the better part of two decades, ultimately selling over three million copies in the US alone. However, it was not the series as a whole that enjoyed reprint runs, but rather the individual volumes which were reprinted according to need as some titles were more appealing to the public than the others. For example, the most popular title, volume 8 – The Gunfighters – is known to have had at least ten printings, the last one in 2004. Volume 15 – The Chroniclers – on the other hand, has only three printings known, the original printing, followed by reprints in 1979 and 1981. It is, together with the Master Index, the least reprinted volume of the series, all the others having at least four printings.
Five of the more popular titles saw separate latter-day British first print versions in the UK as a standard (non-padded) hardcover in a dust jacket book format, even though British customers could originally coach along with their US counterparts by ordering the US version of the series through their nearest Time Life Books subsidiary. These five UK-specific first editions of 2004/06, featuring British spelling, were published by the London-based Caxton Publishing Group under a full license from the European "Time-Life Books B.V." (the former "Time-Life International (Nederland) B.V." Amsterdam branch) as specified in the colophons of the UK volumes, which had managed to stay in business a few years longer after the American "Time Life Books, Inc." mother division had gone defunct in 2001 as a dedicated book publisher.
As an American-specific topic, this series was not widely translated into other languages, but two identically executed foreign-language editions were nonetheless released by the "Time-Life International (Nederland) B.V." Amsterdam branch themselves; the 1978-1980 German-language Der Wilde Westen edition, which was shy of six volumes (seven when counting the "Master Index"), and the 1978-1981 French-language Le Far West edition, equally shy of six (or seven) volumes. That the series was partially translated into these two languages was not only due to the historical ties both France and Germany had with the era in question, but also because the Western genre has never gone out of vogue in either country, particularly in Germany where the popularity of the genre has since the days of Karl May remained unabated, unlike in native USA. As with the American edition, several of the more popular volumes saw multiple reprint runs in West-Germany. Of the most popular one, volume 8 called "Die Revolverhelden" (="The Gunfighters"), is known that it has seen at least six German-language printings.
Aside from these editions released by Time Life themselves, there were at least three additional, but far more obscure licensed international series editions known, all of them truncated; the oldest of these concerned the 1974-1975 Yugoslavian Resnična zgodovina Divjega zahoda ("The true history of the Wild West"), which was licensed to Slovenian publisher Cankarjeva Založba. Being the most obscure of the three, the extent of this slightly differently executed hardcover edition is therefore not known. Like in France and Germany, the Western had been a popular genre in Yugoslavia, before the outbreak of the wars that spelt the end of that nation. A ten-volume Japanese-language Daiseibu monogatari ("Large Western Story") edition is known to have been released by Tokyo-based publisher Taimuraihubukkusu in 1976, identical in exterior to the American source publications, but with Japanese-language interior texts. The third edition concerned the Swedish-language ten-volume Wild West release, published in 1984-85 by Swedish publisher Bokorama and likewise greatly resembling the American source publication. As if to underscore the appeal of these two titles, "The Gunfighters" and "The Cowboys" are the only two volumes that saw printings in all six known international editions. "The Scouts" and the "Master Index" on the other hand, are the only two titles not to see a single foreign edition.
As in the UK, other language territory customers were offered the opportunity to acquire the original American version via mail through their nearest Time Life Books subsidiary, typically by series subscription.
When the series was launched the publisher tried to entice customers to take out a subscription by offering a promotional gold-imprinted hardboard slipcase which held the volumes The Ranchers, The Gunfighters and The Trailblazers. This slipcase is very hard to come by on current used-book markets, as it as a promotional gimmick had not been offered for regular sale by the company.
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The Old West AI simulator
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The Old West
The Old West is a series of books about the history of the American Old West era, published by Time-Life Books from 1973 through 1980. Each book focused on a different topic specific for the era, such as cowboys, American Indians, gamblers and gunfighters.
Each volume, excepting the 27th, in the series is 240 pages long, featuring many contemporary pictures and illustrations. They are bound in a padded imitation leather hardcover binding with the series name, title of the book, and publisher imprinted in gold on the spine of the book. The front cover of the book has a glued-on oval shaped picture, in most cases showcasing artwork by contemporary artists such as Frederic Remington (like the one in the infobox to the right) or Charles M. Russell – and who are otherwise heavily represented with their work on the interior pages of the series as well. Beneath the picture embossed in the faux leather is a set of cattle horns with a rising sun depicted between the horns. The outline of the cover is embossed with a rustic rope. The back cover is blank. The series was issued without a dust jacket. There are 27 volumes in the series, of which volume 27, the "Master Index", was executed as a stapled 65-page soft cover release, not featuring any illustrations:
Despite the golden age of the Western having already ended in the home market by the time the series was launched, it did manage to become one of the more popular and financially successful Time Life book series. This was further exemplified by the fact that the series remained in print for the better part of two decades, ultimately selling over three million copies in the US alone. However, it was not the series as a whole that enjoyed reprint runs, but rather the individual volumes which were reprinted according to need as some titles were more appealing to the public than the others. For example, the most popular title, volume 8 – The Gunfighters – is known to have had at least ten printings, the last one in 2004. Volume 15 – The Chroniclers – on the other hand, has only three printings known, the original printing, followed by reprints in 1979 and 1981. It is, together with the Master Index, the least reprinted volume of the series, all the others having at least four printings.
Five of the more popular titles saw separate latter-day British first print versions in the UK as a standard (non-padded) hardcover in a dust jacket book format, even though British customers could originally coach along with their US counterparts by ordering the US version of the series through their nearest Time Life Books subsidiary. These five UK-specific first editions of 2004/06, featuring British spelling, were published by the London-based Caxton Publishing Group under a full license from the European "Time-Life Books B.V." (the former "Time-Life International (Nederland) B.V." Amsterdam branch) as specified in the colophons of the UK volumes, which had managed to stay in business a few years longer after the American "Time Life Books, Inc." mother division had gone defunct in 2001 as a dedicated book publisher.
As an American-specific topic, this series was not widely translated into other languages, but two identically executed foreign-language editions were nonetheless released by the "Time-Life International (Nederland) B.V." Amsterdam branch themselves; the 1978-1980 German-language Der Wilde Westen edition, which was shy of six volumes (seven when counting the "Master Index"), and the 1978-1981 French-language Le Far West edition, equally shy of six (or seven) volumes. That the series was partially translated into these two languages was not only due to the historical ties both France and Germany had with the era in question, but also because the Western genre has never gone out of vogue in either country, particularly in Germany where the popularity of the genre has since the days of Karl May remained unabated, unlike in native USA. As with the American edition, several of the more popular volumes saw multiple reprint runs in West-Germany. Of the most popular one, volume 8 called "Die Revolverhelden" (="The Gunfighters"), is known that it has seen at least six German-language printings.
Aside from these editions released by Time Life themselves, there were at least three additional, but far more obscure licensed international series editions known, all of them truncated; the oldest of these concerned the 1974-1975 Yugoslavian Resnična zgodovina Divjega zahoda ("The true history of the Wild West"), which was licensed to Slovenian publisher Cankarjeva Založba. Being the most obscure of the three, the extent of this slightly differently executed hardcover edition is therefore not known. Like in France and Germany, the Western had been a popular genre in Yugoslavia, before the outbreak of the wars that spelt the end of that nation. A ten-volume Japanese-language Daiseibu monogatari ("Large Western Story") edition is known to have been released by Tokyo-based publisher Taimuraihubukkusu in 1976, identical in exterior to the American source publications, but with Japanese-language interior texts. The third edition concerned the Swedish-language ten-volume Wild West release, published in 1984-85 by Swedish publisher Bokorama and likewise greatly resembling the American source publication. As if to underscore the appeal of these two titles, "The Gunfighters" and "The Cowboys" are the only two volumes that saw printings in all six known international editions. "The Scouts" and the "Master Index" on the other hand, are the only two titles not to see a single foreign edition.
As in the UK, other language territory customers were offered the opportunity to acquire the original American version via mail through their nearest Time Life Books subsidiary, typically by series subscription.
When the series was launched the publisher tried to entice customers to take out a subscription by offering a promotional gold-imprinted hardboard slipcase which held the volumes The Ranchers, The Gunfighters and The Trailblazers. This slipcase is very hard to come by on current used-book markets, as it as a promotional gimmick had not been offered for regular sale by the company.