Luke Short

Luke Short (born Frederick Dilley Glidden November 19, 1908 – August 18, 1975) was a prolific and popular Western writer. At least twelve of his stories were made into films.

Biography Born in Kewanee, Illinois, he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for two and a half years and then transferred to the University of Missouri at Columbia to study journalism. Following graduation in 1930, he worked for a number of newspapers before becoming a trapper in Canada. He later moved to New Mexico to be an archeologist's assistant. After reading Western pulp magazines and trying to escape unemployment, he began to write Western fiction. He sold his first short story and novel in 1935 under the pen name of Luke Short (which was also the name of a famous gunslinger in the Old West, although it's unclear if he was aware of that when he assumed the pen name.) His apprenticeship in the pulps was comparatively brief. In 1938, he sold a short story, "The Warning", to Collier's, and in 1941, he sold his novel Blood on the Moon, or Gunman's Chance, to The Saturday Evening Post. Some of his later novels were also serialised in the Post.

His first agent was Marguerite E. Harper in New York, and later, H.N. Swanson in Los Angeles. The latter arranged to get many of his novels and short stories made into films.

After publishing over a dozen novels in the 1930s, he started writing for movies in the 1940s. In 1948 alone, four Luke Short novels appeared as movies. Among his notable film credits are Ramrod (1947) and Blood on the Moon (1948). His novel, The Whip, or Doom Cliff, was serialized in both Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post. The first two parts were published in Collier's in the December 21, 1956, and January 4, 1957, issues. Collier's then ceased publication. The Saturday Evening Post bought the rights to the remaining unpublished installment and published it on February 9, 1957.

Over 35 million copies of his books had been sold by 1972. Among his fans were Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harry S. Truman.

Short continued to write novels, despite increasing trouble with his vision, until his death in 1975.

He married Florence Elder in 1934 and the couple had three children.

Novels

The Feud at Single Shot, 1935 The Branded Man, 1936 The Man on the Blue, 1936 Marauders' Moon, 1937 King Colt, 1937 Brand of Empire, 1937 Bold Rider, 1938 Savage Range, 1938 Raiders of the Rimrock, 1938 Hard Money, 1938 Bounty Guns, 1939 War on the Cimarron, 1939 Dead Freight for Piute, 1939 — Albuquerque (film), 1948 Bought with a Gun, 1940 Barren Land Showdown, 1940 Raw Land, 1940 Gunman's Chance, 1941 — Blood on the Moon (film), 1948 Hardcase, 1941. Dave Coyle is a runt, a trouble-maker, a prankster, and a cold-blooded killer - so they say. But he risks his life to buffalo a town and stop a ranch-taking because a girl was once kind. Ride the Man Down, 1942 — Ride the Man Down (film), 1952 Sunset Graze, 1942 And the Wind Blows Free, 1943—told in the first person—unique for Short Ramrod, 1943 — Ramrod (film), 1947 Coroner Creek, 1945 — Coroner Creek (film), 1948 Fiddlefoot, 1946 Station West, 1946 — Station West (film), 1948. Cavalry officer John Haven must work undercover and alone in prize fights and sawmills to find who stole Army uniforms to then rob a gold bullion shipment. Ambush, 1948 — Ambush (film), 1950 High Vermilion, 1948 — Silver City (film), 1951 Vengeance Valley, 1949 — Vengeance Valley (film), 1951 Play a Lone Hand, 1950 Barren Land Murders, 1951 Saddle by Starlight, 1952 Silver Rock, 1953 — Hell's Outpost (film), 1954 Rimrock, 1955 The Whip, 1956 Summer of the Smoke, 1958 First Claim, 1960 Desert Crossing, 1961 Last Hunt, 1962 The Some-Day Country, 1963 First Campaign, 1965 Paper Sheriff, 1965. A sheriff discovers the Hoad clan's new scheme is rustling and murder. He embarks on a one-man feud with the clan - and his wife, a former Hoad in the thick. The Primrose Try, 1966 Debt of Honor, 1967 The Guns of Hanging Lake, 1968 Donovan's Gun, 1968 The Deserters, 1969 Three for the Money, 1970 Man from the Desert, 1971 The Outrider, 1972 The Stalkers, 1973 The Man from Two Rivers, 1974 Trouble Country, 1976

Short-story collections Luke Short's Best of the West, 1983, includes 12 short stories - "Pull Your Freight!" (The Hangman, 1959 movie), "Gunslick Gold", "Lead Won’t Lie", "The Warning", "Bounty Hunter", "The Doctor Keeps a Promise", "High Grade", "Florida Manets West", "Court Day", "Payoff at Rain Peak", "Rough Shod", and "Top Hand." The Marshal of Vengeance, 1986, includes six short stories - "The Marshal of Vengeance", "The Ghost Deputy of Doubletree", "Death Cold-Decks a Tinhorn", "War Fires Light the Stage Trails", "Hideout", and "Exile".