John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Audrey Hepburn, Burt Lancaster.  John Huston, John Ford, Anthony Mann.  They’re some of the most celebrated names in cinema.  And some of their most memorable material came straight from novels that are just as stunning as the movies they inspired. Starting in February 2009, Leisure will release brand new editions of the original books as The Classic Film Collection.

The Searchers, starring John Wayne and directed by John Ford, is #12 on the American Film Institute’s top 100 movies list, and is ranked as the #1 Western of all time. It has inspired filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and George Lucas. But it was author Alan LeMay who created the morally ambiguous Ethan Edwards (named Amos in the book), which became one of Wayne’s iconic roles. In the new edition of the novel from Leisure, to be released in February, Andrew J. Fenady—who wrote and produced Chisum, and counted Wayne as a personal friend—has contributed a special introduction reminiscing about his times with Wayne on the set.

One of the most recognizable and beloved Western movies of all time, Destry Rides Again helped launch James Stewart’s career and revitalized Marlene Dietrich’s in 1939. The character has remained one of Max Brand’s most famous, spawning a 1954 remake of the movie, a TV series, and a Broadway musical. March will mark the first time in more than three decades that the original novel has been back in print. Though this Destry has a decidedly different tone from the movie, he’s definitely a man who’s more than he seems.

In its original publication, The Man From Laramie by T. T. Flynn had more than half a million copies in print. Shortly thereafter, it became one of the most well-known of the Anthony Mann/James Stewart collaborations, darker films with complex characters that changed the way people thought of Westerns. In April the novel upon which this classic movie was based is once again available—for the first time in more than fifty years.

With the huge success of The Searchers, it was no surprise that when John Huston was looking for a Western project, he turned to another novel by Alan LeMay and was able to assemble an all-star cast of Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Lillian Gish, and Audie Murphy for The Unforgiven. In many ways this novel, a May release, is a companion to The Searchers, as it features a different perspective on the clashes and prejudices between whites and Native Americans. Rather than chasing after a missing white girl taken captive by the Comanches as in The Searchers, The Unforgiven presents the explosive ramifications when it’s revealed a white family may have taken in a Kiowa baby 17 years before.

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