Will Henry/ Clay Fisher Books In Order

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Sons of the Western Frontier Books

Publication Order of Clay Fisher Short Story Collections

Henry Wilson Allen, born September 12, 1912 in Kansas City, Missouri, was an American screenwriter and author. For his works, he used many different pen names.

Before he started writing, he worked as a gold miner, a stable hand, and a shop clerk on Indian reservations. While writing, he would draw on each of these different menial jobs that he had.

He died of pneumonia at the age of 79 on October 16, 1991 in Van Nuys, California. He was survived by his wife, Dorothy, to whom he had been married to for over fifty years; he also had a daughter (named Valerie), a son, a sister, two brothers, and four grandkids.

Allen began submitting short stories to Liberty and Collier’s magazines at the age of twelve. His dad wanted him to become a journalist, but this self-described “vagrant” left the University of Missouri after attending for just a year so that he could explore the West.

He began working as a contract screenwriter for MGM animation division in the year 1937. While he worked early on for Harman and Ising’s “Barney Bear” series, the longest collaboration he had was with with Tex Avery, a director. Allen wound up being credited as story artist for many classic shorts Avery directed. This includes: “King-Size Canary”, “The First Bad Man”, “Swing Shift Cinderella”, as well as others. Allen would only ever downplay his own contributions to these shorts, saying that Avery just used him as a sounding board for his own ideas.

The pen names for Allen’s screenplays and scripts for animated short films were Henry Allen and Heck Allen. At the same time, both Clay Fisher and Will Henry were the pen names he used to publish his Westerns under.

His career as a novelist, started in the year 1952, when he published the first of his Westerns, called “No Survivors”. Allen, who was afraid of the studio he was writing for would not approve of his moonlighting, used a pseudonym to avoid any trouble. The last of his novels, called “Summer of the Gun” was released in the year 1978. During his time as a novelist, he had more than fifty novels published, many of which he wrote from his home located in Encino.

Allen’s work has sold around fifteen million copies and have been printed in many foreign languages around the world.

Eight of his novels were adapted for the screen. These include: “Journey to Shiloh”, “To Follow A Flag”, “Tashunga”, “Santa Fe Passage”, “The Tall Men”, Young Billy Young”, “Mackenna’s Gold”, and “Yellowstone Kelly”.

He won the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America five times; including: “The Gates of the Mountains”, “From Where the Sun Stands Now”, and “Chiricahua”. He also was given a Levi Strauss Award for lifetime achievement.

“No Survivors” is the first stand alone novel, which was released in the year 1952. Will Henry shows what General Custer’s final moments and lonely stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 could have been like both emotionally and militarily. Even though the history books state the horse Comanche is the only one to escape alive, Will Henry makes up another survivor, Colonel John Clayton, who was also doomed.

The fictitious Civil War officer that once saved Custer’s life, Clayton leaves a journal describes his later career out on the western frontier. Like a civilian scout for the U. S. Army, he attempts to head the Fetterman Massacre off. He gets captured by Crazy Horse and is taken into the Oglala Sioux tribe. Nine years he lives like an Indian, as the adopted son of Crazy Horse, who was an intimate of Sitting Bull, as well as the husband of a medicine woman. He rides with some Indians against white invaders, but by 1876 he must make a decision about who he truly is.

This is a very fascinating story that has a ton of historical connections. This is a wonderfully written book with a poignant ending. Henry’s story makes for a good historical book, and readers cannot wait to check out more from him.

“The Big Pasture” is a stand alone novel, which was released in the year 1955. Nathan Stark had the typical poor boy’s thirst to make a million dollars before he turned thirty. He figured all he had to do was just head to Texas and pick up a cheap herd of longhorns and take them back to the beef lacking prospecting camps in Montana.

The trek would be 1,500 miles of raging rivers’ bone, both hostile Indians and dry deserts but Stark is both ambitious and brutal. He was not about to let any kind of obstacles get in the way. He is willing to destroy anything that gets in his way on the road to striking it rich. What Nathan had not counted on was starting the first range war in Montana.

Fans of the book found this to be an interesting story, and Will does a superb job of bringing the location to life in the story.

“Pillars of the Sky” is a stand alone novel, which was released in the year 1955. Danger had been waiting in the Bitter Roots but the First U. S. Dragoons leaders were optimistic. That ended when a wagon train got ambushed and gorgeous Calla Rainsford got captured. Sergeant Emmett Bell tried rescuing her, and he touched off some of the bloodiest and goriest fighting of the former Northwest Territory. Here, anything could happen and men have to be prepared for the worst.

“Mackenna’s Gold” is a stand alone novel, which was released in the year 1963. Glen Mackenna was entrusted with the secret location of the fabled Lost Canyon of Gold by some dying Apache warrior. He goes off to find the site in a vast wilderness and has to fight off hordes of some fortune-seeking scavengers looking to beat him there.

The book covers the deep bond Mackenna has with the Apache people and the land well. This is an entertaining read with some great characters, cracking pace, and good descriptions.