Top 10 tales of the American frontier

Scottish playwright Chris Hannan set Missy, his first novel, in 1862 California.

For the Guardian, he named his top ten tales of the American frontier.

One title on the list:

Roughing It by Mark Twain

A young Mark Twain left Missouri in 1861, crossed the continent by stagecoach, and got his first job as a journalist in the biggest, roughest mining town on the western frontier. He wrote it all up in this travel book; the miners and sharpers and gunslingers he met and drank with, and the greed and fantasising that drove everyone on the frontier, himself included.

Read about all ten tales on Hannan's list.

Visit Chris Hannan's website.

Linda L. Richards calls Hannan's Missy "a quite marvelous and original book.... [U]nforgettable. Carefully wrought, beautifully executed. And definitely not for kids."

--Marshal Zeringue