Schaefer has been a prolific writer of novels and stories, but his themes and characters remain fairly consistent throughout his works. In his short novel for young people, Old Ramon, the title character, an aging shepherd, shares Shane's Old West skills and his spirit of rugged individualism. In Monte Walsh (1963), Schaefer's most ambitious novel, the predominant theme once again is the gradual capitulation of the western wilderness to the forces of eastern civilization. In that novel, Monte is an expert cowboy, "a good man with a horse," who cannot adapt to the brave new world of the "autymobile" and the evolution of the cattle business into a corporate enterprise. Like Shane, Monte belongs to the "wild" West of his childhood; unlike Joe Starrett and his own friend Chet Rollins, Monte cannot find a meaningful place for himself within the confines of his new environment...