Welcome to our collection of free western magazines. The theme of ‘Westerns’ refers to the mythic rural western U.S. in the 1800s, with cowboys, Indians, and cattle ranches. This fiction genre was created in the late 19th century and continues to be popular today. The majority of magazines below contain fiction novelettes and short stories, but we also have several magazines of true western stories.
Also see our collection of western audiobooks and audio short stories on this page.
Table of contents
Western Fiction Magazines
Miscellaneous Western Magazines
1904-1971
Various Publishers
Dozens of magazine titles. Over 900 issues in all.
Thrilling Ranch Stories
1933-1953
NY: Better Publications
Romantic Stories of the West. Novelettes and short stories.
Zane Grey’s Western Magazine
1946-1953
UK Version
NY: Dell Publishing
Earlier issues here each contain a novel – full or condensed – by Zane Grey, along with short stories by other writers and features. Zane Grey (1872-1939) became one of the first millionaire authors, and his many western novels were extremely popular long after his death. It is not clear what connection he may have had with this magazine.
Western True Story Nonfiction Magazines
The American West
1964-1990
California: American West Publishing
The magazine of Western History, from the Western History Association, an academic history organization.
Frontier Times
1959-1981
Austin, TX: Western Publications
Unlike most magazines on this page, the stories in Frontier Times are true. Its companion magazines from the same publisher, True West and Old West, also contain true stories.
Old West
1964-1983
Austin, TX: Western Publications
True stories from the publisher of True West and Frontier Times. Many of the stories in this magazine may have been in early versions of the companion magazines.
True Frontier: Factual Stories of the Old West
1968-1977
Illinois: Major Magazines
True western stories.
The West: True Stories of the Old West
1964-1974
NY: Maverick Publications.
About a dozen true stories per issue.
Audio Western Stories – Free Western Audiobooks
These western audiobooks links lead to public domain recordings from LibriVox at Internet Archive. The books recorded by Librivox volunteers were nearly all published before 1930. Recordings include audio western stories and free audio books for adults about cowboys, pioneers, women in the west, and the works of many popular authors of western novels.
All Librivox audiobooks are free and can be streamed online or downloaded for offline listening. See our page on Librivox Audiobooks for useful information and tips.
Audio Western Stories and Books for Adults
Authors – Western Audiobooks and Stories
Explore More Free Online Resources
See our Century Past directories for hundreds of webpages of Books; Magazines; Articles, maps, & photos; and Newspapers. You’ll find the same directories on the top Menu. Here are a few suggested pages: