author
James B. Gillett
1856–1937
Best known as a Texas Ranger, he later turned his frontier experiences into vivid memoirs that helped shape the popular image of the Old West. His writing has the pull of firsthand adventure, with all the rough edges and drama of the Texas borderlands.
1 Audiobook
Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881
by James B. Gillett
About the author
Born in Austin, Texas, on November 4, 1856, he worked as a cowboy while still young and joined the Texas Rangers in the 1870s. He served on the frontier during a turbulent period, then later worked as a rancher and as city marshal of El Paso.
He is remembered most widely for Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881, a memoir drawn from his own years in Ranger service. The book mixes action, border history, and personal recollection, giving readers a direct window into ranch life, law enforcement, and conflict in the late nineteenth-century Southwest.
He died on June 11, 1937, in Temple, Texas. Today, his name remains closely tied to Texas Ranger history, and his memoir continues to be read as one of the classic firsthand accounts of the Old West.