B. M. (Bertha Muzzy) Bower was the first woman to make a career of writing popular westerns. And what a career it was-more than sixty novels published from 1904 to 1940, the year of her death, and still more posthumously. In the western orbit, Bower was-and still is-a star. Her first, Chip of the Flying U, lays out a ranch in Montana and introduces the Happy Family, the bunkhouse gang that reappears in her later books. Chip is the typical woman-shy cowboy, but he is also a gifted artist (reputedly, Bower based the character on Charles M. Russell, who illustrated Chip). Della, a doctor, is the...