The Trail to Yesterday (Illustrated Edition)

A story of the Old West in which a girl from the East finds herself confronted with a strange type of man dwelling in the shadow of an ancient grudge. Dakota, the man, first convinces her that he is a brute beyond redemption and then gradually wins her back to the belief in his own essential manliness. Before this happens, however, there has been an attempted bribe, an attempted murder that seems the response to the bribe and a wild ride through the night, that ends at Dakota's shack.

This edition of the book contains the three original illustrations, rejuvenated, and seven additional western cowboy illustrations that are unique to this edition of the book.

Charles Alden Seltzer (15 August 1875–February 1942) was an American writer. He was a prolific author of western novels, had writing credits for more than a dozen film titles, and authored numerous stories published in magazines, most prominently in Argosy.

Seltzer was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, the son of Lucien B. Seltzer and Oceania Hart of Columbus, Ohio. Before becoming a successful writer, he was variously a newsboy, telegraph messenger, painter, carpenter and manager of the circulation of a newspaper, building inspector, editor of a small newspaper, and an appraiser.

He married Ella Seltzer, and they had three sons and two daughters. His son Louis, later editor of the Cleveland Press, recalled that the family was quite poor when his father was struggling to break into the writing profession (he wrote two hundred stories before receiving an acceptance). During this time, Seltzer's wife brought him wrapping paper from the butcher to write on.

In addition to Argosy, Seltzer's work also appeared in Adventure, Short Stories, Blue Book, The Outing Magazine, Western Story Magazine and the US edition of Pearson's Magazine.

Seltzer wrote his westerns from the experience of five years living in New Mexico. Towards the end of his life, he was also elected mayor of his home-town, North Olmsted, Ohio.