The Log of a Cowboy

The Log of a Cowboy: A Narrative of the Old Trail Days is a historical fiction novel written by Andy Adams and originally published in 1903.

The novel chronicles the wanderings of a group of cowboys who must drive a large herd of cattle from Texas to Montana. Along the way, it details the lifestyle of the cowboys and how they go about their daily work, the dangers they faced or relaxing moments around a campfire.

Although the book is a work of fiction, it is based on Andy Adams' own experiences and is considered one of the literary accounts that most faithfully details the life of a cowboy. Andy Adams' motivation for writing it was that he resented the unrealistic cowboy stories that were fashionable in those years and decided to write his own as a counterpoint.

To this day it is still considered one of the best works to get to know faithfully the life of cowboys in the old United States.

"Just why my father moved, at the close of the civil war, from Georgia to Texas, is to this good hour a mystery to me. While we did not exactly belong to the poor whites, we classed with them in poverty, being renters; but I am inclined to think my parents were intellectually superior to that common type of the South."