SOURCE: Andy Adams: His Life and Writings, Southern Methodist University Press, 1964, 274 p.

[In the following excerpt from his Andy Adams: His Life and Writings, Hudson describes the publication history of Log of a Cowboy and evaluates the noveL]

In July, 1901, J. O'H. Cosgrove rejected some stories that Andy had sent to Doubleday, Page and Company and took occasion to give some literary advice. Instead of a number of stories about prospectors, he said, it would be better to write a novel about one successful prospector and turn the stories into incidents in his career. The sketch of Mexican outlaws he found confused, with too many details and no tense dramatic effect. As a model he recommended Emerson Hough and suggested that Andy send him two or three sketches and ask his opinion. Andy had already begun to exchange letters with Hough; after reading "The Passing of Peg-Leg" in...