The latest winner of the Spur Award for Best Novel is featured below along with a complete list of all past winners of the Spur Award for Best Novel. The best novel category has had various names over the years, the two current names are Best Western Novel for longer works and Novel of the West for shorter works - both are listed below. We also provide links to the other Spur Awards and to our index of all book awards featured on Happy Dead Trees.

"The Spur Awards, given annually for distinguished writing about the American West, are among the oldest and most prestigious in American literature."

The latest winner of the Best Western Novel (long) and Novel of the West (short)

1953 - Law Man by Lee Leighton

1954 - The Violent Land by Wayne D. Overholser

1955 - Somewhere They Die by L. P. Holmes

1956 - High Gun by Leslie Ernenwein

1957 - Buffalo Wagons by Elmer Kelton

1958 - Short Cut to Red River by Noel Loomis

1959 - Long Run by Nelson Nye

1960 - The Nameless Breed by Will C. Brown

1961 - The Honyocker by Giles Lutz

1962 - Comanche Captives by Fred Grove

1963 - Follow the Free Wind by Leigh Brackett

1964 - The Trail to Ogallala by Benjamin Capps

1965 - Sam Chance by Benjamin Capps

1966 - My Brother John by Herbert R. Purdum

1967 - The Valdez Horses by Lee Hoffman

1968 - Down the Long Hills by Louis L'Amour

1969 - Tragg's Choice by Clifton Adams

1970 - The Last Days of Wolf Garnett by Clifton Adams

1971 - The Day the Cowboys Quit by Elmer Kelton

1972 - A Killing in Kiowa by Lewis B. Patten

1973 - The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton

1974 - A Hanging In Sweetwater by Stephen Overholser

1975 - The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout

1976 - The Spirit Horses by Lou Cameron  &  The Court Martial of George Armstrong Custer by Douglas C. Jones

1977 - The Great Horse Race by Fred Grove

1978 - Riders to Cibola by Norman Zollinger

1979 - The Holdouts by William Decker

1980 - The Valiant Women by Jeanne Williams

1981 - Eye of the Hawk by Elmer Kelton  &   Horizon by Lee Head

1982 - Match Race by Fred Grove

1983 - Leaving Kansas by Frank Roderus

1984 - Gone the Dreams and Dancing by Douglas C. Jones

1985 - Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

1986 - The Blind Corral by Ralph Robert Beer

1987 - Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman

1988 - Mattie by Judy Alter

1989 - Fool's Coach by Richard Wheeler

1990 - Sanctuary by Gary Svee

1991 - Journal of the Gun Years by Richard Matheson

1992 - Nickajack by Robert J. Conley

1993 - Friends by Charles Hackenberry

1994 - St. Agnes' Stand by Tom Eidson

1995 - The Dark Island by Robert J. Conley

1996 - Blood of Texas by Preston Lewis writing as Will Camp

1997 - Seems to skip a year because the awards are now dated by the year a book wins, rather than the year it was published.

1998 - The Kiowa Verdict by Cynthia Haseloff

1999 - Journey of the Dead by Loren D. Estleman

2000 - Masterson by Richard S. Wheeler

2001 - Summer of Pearls by Mike Blakely

2002 - The Way of the Coyote by Elmer Kelton

2003 - The Chili Queen by Sandra Dallas

2004 - I Should Be Extremely Happy In Your Company by Brian Hall

2005 - Buy the Chief a Cadillac by Rick Steber

2006

Best Western Novel: (long) - Camp Ford: A Western Story by Johnny D. Boggs  &  The Undertaker's Wife by Loren D. Estleman

Novel of the West: (short) - High Country by Willard Wyman

2007

Best Western Novel: (long) - The Night Journal by Elizabeth Crook

Novel of the West: (short) - The Shape Shifter by Tony Hillerman

2008

Best Western Novel - The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle

Best Novel of the West - Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas

2009

Best Western Novel - Shavetail by Thomas Cobb

Best Novel of the West - Another Man's Moccasins by Craig Johnson

2010 - Will be announced Spring 2010

Spur Award for Best Original Paperback Novel > > >

The Official Website of the Western Writers of America Spur Awards

(Visit our Book Awards Index for a complete list of the dozens of book awards listed on Happy Dead Trees.)