Walter Van Tilburg Clark is most widely known as the author of The Ox-Bow Incident (1940), possibly the best and most realistic cowboy novel ever written. Set in Nevada in 1885, The Ox-Bow Incident immediately established and secured Clark's place in American fiction. The City of Trembling Leaves (1945), a coming-of-age novel set in contemporaneous times, was not a success, but The Track of the Cat (1949) added to Clark's reputation as a Western writer of literary importance. Set on an isolated ranch in Nevada in 1900, The Track of the Cat combines the stark realism of The Ox-Bow Incident with the symbolism of The City of Trembling Leaves. The title story of The Watchful Gods and Other Stories (1950) was not well received though most of the other stories gained high praise. Clark's reputation remains strong, but his combination of psychological realism and narrative realism with a respect for the mysteries of nature...