William Everett Cook (1921 – July 1964), was a

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

writer who used the

pen names A pen is a common writing tool, writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a Nib (pen), nib or in a sm ...

Will Cook, James Keene, Wade Everett and Frank Peace. Called "a master western storyteller,"Review of Rain Tree by Will Cook
"

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

, 10/02/1996. Cook published dozens of short stories and 50 novels before his death at age 42. A number of his stories and novels were turned into Hollywood westerns, including the 1961

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...

film

Two Rode Together ''Two Rode Together'' is a 1961 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring James Stewart, Richard Widmark, and Shirley Jones. The supporting cast includes Linda Cristal, Andy Devine, and John McIntire. The film was based upon the ...

Life

Born in

Richmond, Indiana Richmond is a city in eastern Wayne County, Indiana. Bordering the state of Ohio, it is the county seat of Wayne County and is part of the Dayton, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 36,812. Situa ...

,"Entry for Cook, Will(iam Everett)," ''Encyclopedia of Frontier and Western Fiction'' edited by Jon Tuska and Vicki Piekarski, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1983, page 52 to 54. Cook ran away from home at age 16 and joined the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

cavalry before serving as a pilot in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. During the war he was severely wounded in the leg but later returned to active duty. After the war Cook worked as a salvage worker, judo instructor, a bush pilot in Alaska, and as a deputy sheriff in California."Entry on William Everett Cook" by R. E. Briney, ''Twentieth-Century Western Writers'' edited by Geoff Sadler, St. James Press, 1992, pages 140 to 142. Cook died of a heart attack in 1964 while building a schooner in which he and his wife Thea hoped to sail around the world.

Writing career

Cook started writing westerns in 1951 and published 100 short stories and 50 novels before dying at the age of 42."Review of The Devil's Roundup" by Wes Lukowsky, Booklist, Sept. 15, 2002. In 1959, Cook used the penname Wade Everett for a series of paperbacks released by

Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remains ...

, with these novels being reprinted numerous times over the following decades. Among these was ''The Last Scout'', published in 1960 and considered one of his best novels. The novel is about an unrepentant hell raiser who comes to Deadwood to live with his daughter's family. Other notable books of his include ''The Wind River Kid'' (Fawcett, 1958), where the main character of ''The Last Scout'' is now a drunk who gets thrown into the job of sheriff, and ''The Wranglers'' (Fawcett, 1960), about an older horse-breaker and his partner who travel to monument country in Southern Utah while dealing with personal issues.

called Cook "a master western storyteller. His fiction frequently featured the use of "recurring characters to link otherwise standalone stories," as shown in his collection of novellas ''The Devil's Roundup'', which

Booklist ''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is av ...

called "One of the best posthumous western collections to be offered in many years. Most of his books deal with traditional western themes of reformed outlaws, range wars and fights with Native Americans, but some also focused on romance. After Cook's death a number of posthumous books by him were released. In addition, his Everett byline had become valuable enough that Ballantine Books turned it into a house name for novels written by other authors. Among these was 1968's ''The Whiskey Traders,'' which was released under the Everett byline but written by

Giles A. Lutz Giles Alfred Lutz (March 1910June 1982) was a prolific author of fiction in the Western genre. Born in March 1910 in Missouri, United States, Lutz for many years wrote short stories about the American West that were published in pulp magazines. ...

. Many of Cook's short stories including "A Gunman Came to Town" were published in

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...

. Cook's archives are held in the

University of Oregon Libraries Knight Library is the main facility of the University of Oregon's (UO) library system. It is located on the university's campus in Eugene, Oregon, United States. The library design is emblematic of the architecture of the university's older buildin ...

Hollywood adaptations

Cook's 1959 novel ''Comanche Captives'' inspired the 1961

film

, with the novel being re-released that year as a movie tie-in by Bantam Books in the United States and as a hardcover in the United Kingdom. In addition, Cook's stories and novels were also adapted into a number of other Hollywood westerns including episodes of the TV shows

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...

Bronco A bucking horse is any breed or either gender of horse with a propensity to buck. They have been, and still are, referred to by various names, including bronco, broncho, and roughstock. The harder they buck, the more desirable they are for rod ...

, and

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre ''Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre'' is an American Western anthology television series that was broadcast on CBS from October 5, 1956, until September 20, 1962. Format Many episodes were based on novels by Zane Grey, to all of which Four Star F ...

along with the film

Quincannon, Frontier Scout ''Quincannon, Frontier Scout'' is a 1956 American Western film directed by Lesley Selander and written by John C. Higgins and Don Martin. The film stars Tony Martin, Peggie Castle, John Bromfield, John Smith and Ron Randell. The film was rele ...

and the

Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

Gli uomini dal passo pesante ''The Tramplers'' is a 1965 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed by Albert Band and Mario Sequi based on the novel ''Guns of North Texas'' by Will Cook. Story When Lon Cordeen, an ex-Civil War soldier, returns home to his father Temple h ...

Bibliography

As Frank Peace

Single novels

*''Easy Money'' (1955) *''The Brass Brigade'' (1956) *''Bandit's Trail'' (1974)

Omnibus collection

*''The Outlaw's Revenge: And Other Bible Mystery Stories for Boys and Girls'' (1950)

As Will Cook

Single novels

*''Frontier Feud'' (1954) *''Prairie Guns'' (1954) *''Fury at Painted Rock'' (1955) *''Sabrina Kane'' (1955) *''Trumpets to the West'' (1956) *''Apache Ambush'' (1958) *''Badman's Holiday'' (1958) *''Elizabeth, by Name'' aka ''The Crossing'' (1958) *''Guns of North Texas'' (1958) *''The Wind River Kid'' (1958) *''Comanche Captives'' (1959, with an excerpt published as a short story in the Saturday Evening Post"Comanche Captives" by Will Cook, Saturday Evening Post. 4/25/1959, Vol. 231 Issue 43, p48-114. 5p.) *''The Outcasts'' (1959) *''Killer behind a Badge'' (1960) *''Outcast of Cripple Creek'' (1960) *''The Wranglers'' (1960) *''The Peacemakers'' (1961) *''Two Rode Together'' (1961) *''The Breakthrough'' (1963) *''The Tough Texan'' (1963) *''Last Command'' (1964) *''Ambush at Antlers Spring'' (1967) *''The Apache fighter'' (1967) *''The Drifter'' (1969) *''The Rain Tree'' (1996) *''The Last Scout'' (1997) *''The Devil's Roundup'' (2002)

A Saga of Texas

#''Until Day Breaks'' (1999) #''Until Shadows Fall'' (2000) #''Until Darkness Disappears'' (2001)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Will 1921 births 1964 deaths American Western (genre) novelists

Life

Writing career

Hollywood adaptations

Bibliography

As Frank Peace

Single novels

Omnibus collection

As Will Cook

Single novels

A Saga of Texas

See also

References