Why the Wild West is the Perfect Setting for a Romance
- Paula Altenburg
- 1 minute ago
- 3 min read
There are a lot of definitions for the word "romance." I like this one from the Merriam Webster dictionary: "an emotional attraction or aura belonging to an especially heroic era, adventure, or activity."
I used to torment the local bookmobile librarian that Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey were romance authors for men.
L’Amour? Louis Dearborn LaMoore knew what he was about when he chose that name.
And as for Pearl Zane Gray, his most famous book—according to Google—is Riders of the Purple Sage. Google has this to say about it: “It is about Jim Lassiter, a gunslinger, who saves Jane Withersteen from marrying a Mormon elder.”
I loved these authors when I was eleven or twelve. I still love them. They seemed romantic then, and they seem romantic now. I have one whole shelf dedicated to L’Amour paperbacks (thanks for those, Dad!). As for Zane Grey, one of the first westerns I ever read was The Mysterious Rider. The heroine’s name was Columbine, a name I never forgot. She was an abandoned baby found by miners and raised by a rancher. She was beautiful, and sweet, and all the things a young girl finds romantic. There’s a villain, an honorable cowboy, and a mysterious hero who makes everything right in the end.
Q. What do my westerns have in common with those of Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey?
A. We write about relationships.
Q. What makes relationships interesting to readers?
A. High stakes.
Q. How does a Wild West setting raise those stakes?
A. Several ways.
Isolation
The best towns for western-based fiction were the boom towns that grew up around mines or along railway lines. Someone sketchy was always in charge—a corrupt landowner, or a sheriff who was bad at his job. The hero had to rely on himself and his honor, and any alliances he made, to restore order. There’s often a heroine who works with the hero in a forced proximity trope. I love that trope. It’s popular in romance, and the Wild West is the perfect setting for it.
Danger
The Wild West wasn’t lawless, exactly. It’s more that the laws were loosely enforced according to who was interpreting them and what—or who—was affected. Throw in wildlife, outlaws, unhappy Native North Americans and rail workers, the untamed wilderness, and the possibilities are endless. Not only is the Wild West the perfect setting for a forced proximity trope, but it’s great for heroine (or hero!) in jeopardy.
Freedom
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry is one of my favorite books. I love the whole series. Cattle drives, fording rivers, picking up and moving, and never waking up in the same place twice. There’s a lot to be said for sitting around a campfire and contemplating the stars. Laura Ingalls Wilder also wrote about being a pioneer girl, and loving the wide-open spaces, and how difficult it became to settle down in one place. Threaten to take all that freedom away? You’ve got yourself a story. Loner heroes who can’t settle down are big in westerns. They ride in, they save the day, they ride out. Loner hero is a popular romance trope. Sometimes they meet the right woman and decide there’s a lot to be said for a home on the range, too.
Emotional Intensity
When everything in your environment can kill you, including your neighbors and any outlaw who rides through, and your day-to-day survival relies on hard work and a crop in the field, you tend to take life seriously. Let’s not forget the female martyrs about to marry villainous characters and subject themselves to a lifetime of misery, either. Probably over water or land rights, but that’s a guess.
Point being, writers want readers to be invested in their characters. It’s very easy to become invested in a character when they’re isolated, they’re in grave physical danger, their freedom is at stake, and emotionally, their lives are hanging by a thread.
All of which brings me to one final question.
Q. Do you agree or disagree that westerns are romance novels written for men?
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