Ainsworth, Ed. "Will James, the Lone Cowboy." In The Cowboy in Art. New York: World, 1968. The chapter on Will James presents an interesting, though not scholarly, view of his life and work.

Amaral, Anthony. Will James: The Gilt Edged Cowboy. Los Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1967. Amaral was the first of James's biographers to discover that the author had fictionalized much of his autobiography. Nonetheless, this is a sympathetic work, based in part on interviews with people who were part of James's life. Amaral published a revised version of this work as Will James: The Last Cowboy Legend (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1980).

Bell, William Gardner. Will James: The Life and Works of a Lone Cowboy.

Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Press, 1987.

Written by a professional historian, this is an interesting, sympathetic, and well-documented biography. It contains good reproductions of James's illustrations.

Neil, J. M., ed. Will James...