Buffalo Girls »

Larry McMurtry worked as a cowhand on his father's Texas cattle ranch until he was 22, but never aspired to be a rancher. Instead, he published his first novel, Horseman, Pass By, when he was just 25. More than two dozen novels later, there's still more to McMurtry than a typical western.

In a letter to her daughter back East, Martha Jane is not shy about her own importance: "Martha Jane -- better known as Calamity -- is just one of the handful of aging legends who travel to London as part of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show in Buffalo Girls. As he describes the insatiable curiosity of Calamity's Indian friend No Ears, Annie Oakley's shooting match with Lord Windhouveren, and other highlights of the tour, McMurtry turns the story of a band of hardy, irrepressible survivors into an unforgettable portrait of love, fellowship, dreams, and heartbreak.

Publishers Weekly

Yearning for the excitement and good hunting of the pk Wild West, two mountain men and an old Indian scout dejectedly roam the prairie; an aging Calamity Jane composes brooding letters to her daughter; a madam closes her bordello to run a respectable hotel, symbolically ending the era. According to PW , ``McMurtry's genius with language always enchants, but this tale's charm is muffled by sadness.'' (Oct.)