author

William F. Drannan

1832–1913

A frontiersman-turned-writer, this late-19th-century memoirist is remembered for vivid adventure stories drawn from life in the American West. His books helped preserve a rough, dramatic version of plains and mountain life for later readers.

2 Audiobooks

Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains

Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains

by William F. Drannan

Capt. W. F. Drannan, Chief of Scouts, As Pilot to Emigrant and Government Trains, Across the Plains of the Wild West of Fifty Years Ago

Capt. W. F. Drannan, Chief of Scouts, As Pilot to Emigrant and Government Trains, Across the Plains of the Wild West of Fifty Years Ago

by William F. Drannan

About the author

Born in 1832 and dying in 1913, William F. Drannan is best known for autobiographical frontier narratives set in the American West. Public-domain library records for his work identify him as the author of Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains and Chief of Scouts, books that present his experiences as a hunter, trapper, scout, and fighter on the plains.

His writing belongs to a popular tradition of western recollection and adventure memoir, mixing personal history with the storytelling style readers of the period expected. Whether approached as memoir, legend, or a blend of both, his books remain part of the long afterlife of frontier literature.

Today, Drannan is mainly encountered through digitized editions in online archives, where his works survive as examples of how the American West was remembered and retold in print.