A Texas Ranger (Illustrated Edition)

This is a 1910 western cowboy novel with a healthy does of romance to go along with action and adventure. It is, of course, set in the American Old West. It contains two, faced-paced, no-nonsense, interlinked stories about a Texas Ranger, Steve Fraser, who is pursuing a murderer a convict who escaped from Yuma State Penetentiary. Curiously, in the first story, Steve plays second fiddle. The story is complete with two heroes; bad guys on the loose; bucking bronchos; cattle round-ups; and, a surprise arrest of and jail break by one of our heros.

Included are 12 Texas Rangers illustrations and photographs that are relevant and unique to this edition of the book.

William MacLeod Raine was born in London in 1871. After his mother died, his family migrated from England to Arkansas, eventually settling on a cattle ranch near the Texas-Arkansas border. In 1894, after graduating from Oberlin College, Raine left Arkansas and headed for the western U.S. He became the principal of a school in Seattle while contributing columns to a local newspaper. Later he moved to Denver, where he worked as a reporter and editorial writer for local periodicals, including the Republican, the Post, and the Rocky Mountain News.

During the First World War 500,000 copies of one of his books were sent to British soldiers in the trenches. Twenty of his novels have been filmed. Though he was prolific, he was a slow, careful, conscientious worker, intent on accurate detail, and considered himself a craftsman rather than an artist.

In 1905 Raine married Jennie P. Langley, who died in 1922. In 1924 he married Florence A. Hollingsworth; they had a daughter. Though he traveled a good deal, Denver was considered his home. Raine died on July 25, 1954.