There is something special about the Old West. Life is the western United States for much of the 19th century was akin to living in another country, which makes sense as it was cobbled together from many diverse societies. Our next story takes place in the Great Southwest and involves a potential love triangle gone very wrong.

During his short life, Frank Norris had an outsized impact on American Literature. A painter turned author, Norris travelled globally as a news correspondent writing several short stories and novels. His finest work, The Octopus was intended as the first book of a trilogy on which he was working when he died during appendicitis surgery at the age of 34.