William F. Drannan

author

William F. Drannan

1832–1913

A self-styled frontier scout turned his adventures into vivid, fast-moving memoirs of the American West. His books helped shape the popular image of plains travel, trapping, and conflict on the 19th-century frontier.

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 remembered for frontier memoirs including Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains and Capt. W. F. Drannan, Chief of Scouts. Library and public-domain records consistently identify him as an American author of Western adventure and reminiscence.

Drannan wrote in an energetic, first-person style, presenting himself as a scout, guide, hunter, and trapper in the far West. His books are full of dramatic episodes and helped preserve — and popularize — a rough, action-heavy version of frontier life for later readers.

Some later commentators have questioned how strictly factual all of his stories were, so he is often read today both as a memoirist and as a maker of Western legend. Even so, his works remain part of the long tradition of early firsthand-style writing that shaped how many readers imagined the Old West.