William F. Drannan

author

William F. Drannan

1832–1913

A frontier memoirist with a flair for danger and drama, he wrote vivid Western adventure books drawn from life on the plains and in the mountains. His stories helped shape the larger-than-life legend of the American West, even as later readers questioned how literally they should be taken.

2 Audiobooks

Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West

Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West

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 remembered as the author of rough-and-ready frontier narratives including Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains and Chief of Scouts. Library and catalog records consistently identify him as an American writer of Western reminiscences, and his books were widely preserved through major public-domain collections.

Drannan presented himself as a scout, hunter, trapper, and guide whose life crossed the overland trails and conflict zones of the nineteenth-century West. That self-made image is a big part of his appeal: his books are packed with action, hardship, and campfire-style storytelling that gives modern listeners a strong sense of how thrilling Western memoir could be.

At the same time, his reputation is complicated. Later historians and readers have treated parts of his autobiographical storytelling with caution, seeing some episodes as embellished or unreliable. Even so, his work remains interesting not just as adventure writing, but as an example of how the Old West was remembered, retold, and mythologized in print.