The conquest of the West, the gold rush, trappers, Indians, the columns of covered wagons, outlaws and trains or stagecoaches robberies, cowboys and cattle-driving; that's all what we think about when somebody tells us about Western. Other things can also be figured : the wide open spaces, the inhospitable canyons (witnesses of bloody ambushes) and the Prairies, wide background for the adventures of historical figures or imaginary heroes, carried by the tales, novelettes, plays, narratives, poems, screenplays, paintings, photos, drawings, shows, comic books, legends telling the fabulous epic of the settlement in savage regions of the United States of America from the sixteenth till the nineteenth century.

Of that period we do know much and at the same time very few, for often we only see in Western but the movies we saw or sometimes the books we read. However, at the root of all these spreading ways of the western myth, we find, for the biggest part, and in addition to the actual facts, the novels relating the conquest of the West. These novels, short stories or narratives can be classified under the designation of Western literature.

This literature is often amalgamated without distinction with the escapist literature, these narratives meant for making us dream and that for long nobody worried about ordering in great genres. Such a classification in categories, if it allows to distinguish the main different themes, must not be strictly compartmentalised. Actually, writers frequently source material from various origins in order to create a remarkable and original work, distinguishable from others. However, this study has shown that the Western literature was a full genre that can be pointed out among the escapist and adventure novels.

The Western novel is the relation of the settling of the American west and it can take different narrative ways :

• the discovery, exploration and expedition narratives relating the first contacts of Europeans with the New World and his inhabitants (strange Indians tribes),
• the testimony of pioneers who settled this land,
• the traditional Western novels telling people's life during the Way West in a more or less historical and realistic way,
• the tall tales or humorous Western choosing the comic or grotesque way to describe the same realities often having their origins in oral legends or local traditions,
• the "sundown" Western novels bearing witness of the end of a conquest period facing modernity and
• the inspired Western novels taking up again myths of the Way West and transposing them in other times and places.

All these currents were and are always illustrated by numerous authors (Americans, Europeans, Canadians and others). One of their common characteristics (they are sharing) is to write under pseudonyms to disguise their real identity (like B. Traven), their sex (like B. M. Sinclair), or also to distinguish their creations (spy or detective novels…). Western literature has developed in accordance with the epochs, changing its look in order to satisfy the demands of the readers. Presently, it is continuing to evolve in the way of inspired novel, allying Western with other genres.

Many trails can be followed to dream of faraway horizons and to participate to fantastic rides across the Prairies. The incredible prose of the first storywriters, fond of exoticism, has progressively given place to stories more respectful of the History and showing more realism as well as a certain nostalgia of the open spaces and of a rough but free way of life.

Diverse recent publications prove that the Western literature vein is not exhausted and is still evolving. Perhaps the enthusiasm of the readers is not any longer so important as it was in the nineteenth century, but it lasts beyond the trends as demonstrated by the regular re-issues of some precursor's masterpieces translated in various languages and whose names were Jack London, James Fenimore Cooper…

The Western novel is the keeper of the Frontier spirit and of the history of these men and women who became legends (such as David Crockett, Kit Carson, Buffalo Bill, Calimity Jane and Belle Starr), but also anonymous immigrants who came from the whole world searching for a new home. These virgin lands were the place of encounter and confrontation of different cultures and the fabulous melting pot of a new nation.

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