Jack Schaefer may be the most ignored major writer of the American West. In a quartet of novels--Shane (1949), The Canyon (1953), Company of Cowards (1957), and Monte Walsh (1963)--as well as in richly varied short fiction and nonfiction, Schaefer established himself as an author capable of elevating the tired themes of the Western to new levels, of projecting their wider significance, and of broadening the range of characters and situations. In 1945 Schaefer, a history buff and newspaper editor for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, wrote a story titled "Rider from Nowhere" that was published serially in Argosy. Four years later the same tale, beefed up into a novel, was published as Shane. Over the next fifty years the book sold over six million copies and is still widely read. In 1953 it was made into a classic motion picture with a screenplay by Schaefer's fellow Western author A. B. Guthrie Jr., which...