Luke Short Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Luke Short is the pseudonym of Frederick Dilley Glidden, one of the most prolific authors of Western novels that ever lived. He was born in 1908 and published his first novel “The Feud at Single Shot” in 1936. By the time of his death in 1975, he had published more than a hundred short stories and over fifty novels. There are more than thirty million copies of his works in print and his books are still popular years after his death. Luke Short went to the University of Missouri, from where he graduated with a degree in journalism in 1930. He then became a newspaper reporter but he was soon bored with the job and quit as all he wanted to be was a writer. Between 1930 and 1931, he worked for five different publications but decided it was not for him as he described himself as a disappointed writer forced to write the news. He then worked several odd jobs that included fur trapping and logging in Canada and assistant to an archeologist in New Mexico. During this time, he was buying pulp magazines for the Western fiction which he read in his spare time. After reading tens of these stories he believed that maybe he could write better stories that what he was reading.

Short sold his first short story in 1935 and by the end of the year, he had published “The Feud at Single Shot” his first novel. He had published his first short story as F.D. Glidden, but a publisher thought the name sounded weird and suggested he published under Luke Short, a pseudonym. What neither of them knew was that it was the name of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp’s best buddy, who was one of the most famous Old West gunman-gamblers. After achieving much success, he managed to convince his wife and his brother to write under the pseudonyms Vic Elder and Peter Dawson respectively, both of which were names suggested by his agent. His brother achieved moderate success writing Westerns and wrote until he died aged fifty-five in 1957. Luke Short asserted that their proficiency in storytelling probably came from the fact that their mother was a high school English teacher who taught them well. In later years, the popularity of Westerns waned and Luke tried to write in another genre though he did not find much success. Neither the public nor critics loved his new work but he was not one to be deterred. He found a working formula for his Westerns and got down writing formulaic novels. It seemed the readers were contented and reassured by the fact that they could expect no great surprises and predictable plots which made Short’s novels more like visiting with an old friend who always had a new story.

One of Luke Short’s biggest influences was the author Ernest Haycox who influenced the way he develops character and plot. This is evidenced in the strong heroes who are quick to act and slow to talk and the fact that Short just like Haycox loved to include one bad and one good woman in his novels. His heroes also tend to make the wrong choice at the start before going back and making corrections to end the story in a better place. But in the development of believable independent and strong female characters, Short was much better than his literary hero whose characters were often one dimensional. Short experienced his best years during the 1940s when most of his novels became bestsellers with several getting adapted for the big screen. Some of the most successful films from his novels during this time included “Blood on the Moon,” “The Hangman,” and “Coroner Creek.” Things turned sour during the 50s and 60s as the public changed their tastes. While he still produced novels that had made him one of the most popular authors of the 1940s, the audience had moved on.

With the money he had accumulated throughout his career, Luke Short became a common figure in New Orleans, Chicago, Memphis and Saratoga Springs where he had a string of horses in the races. He traveled with several wealthy men who were into sports, attending horse races and heavyweight championship fights. In 1947, Short and his wife Florence Elder Glidden, a beautiful woman who turned heads everywhere they went moved from Santa Fe and made their new home in Colorado. He died at his home in Aspen Colorado in 1975, having earned his nickname of “Dean of Western authors.”

Luke Short’s “The Branded Man” is the story of Mark Flood, a man in charge of a herd of cattle that numbered over 6000. Men like him are usually known as Trail Boss and are answerable if anything happens to the herd. Driving the cattle before them, they are making good time and even enjoying themselves until bad weather sets in. He decides to split the herd in two to make it easier to manage. The herd ahead of him has 3000 cattle and is led by seven men. Once they have split the herd, the forward herd moves fast and disappears never to be seen again. When Mark arrives at the point they had agreed to rendezvous at, he finds no one there. Suddenly he is blamed for the disappearance of half the herd given the fact that he once upon had a rustler brother. He soon realizes that there is more to it than meets the eye.

Short’s “The Feud at Single Shot” is a compelling Western novel that tells the story of a man just released from prison. He had been inside for nearly a decade and is happy to get out and cannot wait to go back home to meet his loved ones. But on the train going back home, the train is taken hostage by robbers. He successfully fights them off and is happy with himself now that he is finally a lawful member of society that is doing good. He gets home to find that everything has gone to the dogs as their home and land is about to get foreclosed, some stubborn miner is encroaching on the land and his sister powerless to do anything. What they do not know is that it is all an elaborate plot that seeks to throw them off the land due to some unforeseen good fortune they will discover.

Luke Short’s “The Man On The Blue” is the story of a man that gets involved in a shootout with a man and kills him. What he did not know was that the man is a Marshall and when he ends up dead, he has to go on the run. On the run from the authorities, he rescues a dodgy sheriff who was being beaten to death by an incensed woman. He never realized that he was a corrupt sheriff and that he deserved everything he was getting from the woman. The sheriff hires him to help him with law enforcement in the jurisdiction and given his effectiveness, he is soon promoted to Deputy Sheriff. But trouble follows him and he is involved in a stolen mine and a land grab and has to run again.