5.5" x 8.5",178 page hardcover with dustjacket titled THE BEST OF THE WEST edited by Joe R. Lansdale/ Doubleday Company, Inc., A Double D Western, ISBN #0-385-23256-X, First Edition, Copyright 1986/ These 13 short stories, one poem and one teleplay assembled by editor Lansdale reinvigorate one of the central images of our culture - the West. Each of these stories is an original and jointly all succeed because their writers create a sense of place, whether it is a mud flats whorehouse, a train depot, dry prairie or rickety ranch, its owner bedeviled by falling cattle prices. Additionally, hard, clear prose animates each of these narratives, wherein character is always pitted and tested against a hostile environment either of wilderness or law. Lansdale provides a telling introduction about the state of literature and the West and inserts succinct prefaces of each writer's past accomplishments. Readers who thrive on Louis L'Amour's romances will find this anthology exciting and those who admire Doctorow's Welcome to Hard Times will find it as innovative. The book is complete and in GOOD - VERY GOOD condition with some overall wear. This is an Ex-Library copy with the usual markings that includes a library stamp, a blotted out library stamp along the top edge of the closed book pages, and some glue damage to the insides of the front and back cover boards where the dustjacket has been removed. (see pictures)