Luke Short (writer)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Luke Short (born Frederick Dilley Glidden November 19, 1908 – August 18, 1975) was a popular
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. At least nine of his novels were made into films.


Biography

Born in
Kewanee, Illinois Kewanee () is a city in Henry County, Illinois, United States. "Kewanee" is the Winnebago word for greater prairie chicken, which lived there. The population was 12,509 at the 2020 census, down from 12,944 in 2000. Geography According to the ...
, he attended the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
for two and a half years and then transferred to the
University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...
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 Gunfighters, also called gunslingers (), or in the 19th and early 20th centuries gunmen, were individuals in the American Old West who gained a reputation of being dangerous with a gun and participated in gunfights and shootouts. Today, the t ...
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 ''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 ...
''. Some of his later novels were also serialised in the Post. 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 A ramrod (or scouring stick) is a metal or wooden device used with muzzleloading firearms to push the projectile up against the propellant (mainly blackpowder). The ramrod was used with weapons such as muskets and cannons and was usually held ...
'' (1947) and ''
Blood on the Moon ''Blood on the Moon'' is a 1948 RKO black-and-white "psychological" Western film noir starring Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Preston and Walter Brennan. Directed by Robert Wise, the cinematography is by Nicholas Musuraca. The ...
'' (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. Short continued to write novels, despite increasing trouble with his vision, until his death in 1975. His ashes are buried in
Aspen, Colorado Aspen is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 7,004 at the 2020 United States Census. Aspen is in a remote area of the Rocky Moun ...
, his home at the time of his death.''FindaGrave.com''
/ref> 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) ''Albuquerque'' is a 1948 American Cinecolor Western film directed by Ray Enright and starring Randolph Scott, Barbara Britton, George "Gabby" Hayes, and Lon Chaney, Jr. Based on the novel ''Dead Freight for Piute'' by Luke Short, with a screen ...
'', 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. *'' High Vermilion'', 1948 - filmed as '' Silver City'', 1951 *''Vengeance Valley'', 1949 — ''
Vengeance Valley ''Vengeance Valley'' is a 1951 American Technicolor Western film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Burt Lancaster, with a supporting cast featuring Robert Walker, Joanne Dru, Sally Forrest, John Ireland and Ray Collins. It is based on ...
'', 1951 *''Ambush'', 1948 — '' Ambush (film)'', 1950 *''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".


References


External links

*
Guide to the Frederick D. Glidden papers at the University of Oregon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Short, Luke People from Kewanee, Illinois Western (genre) writers 20th-century American novelists American male novelists Novelists from Illinois Place of death missing 1908 births 1975 deaths American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers