Ernest Haycox
American
Ernest Haycox was a native of Portland and successor to Zane Grey in the development of the western novel. He launched his career in the 1920s by writing pieces for pulp magazines. Free Grass, his first novel, brought out in 1929, established his reputation in the literary genre. His work was serialized in Colliers Magazine and The Saturday Evening Post for good payment. He prospered through the Depression with his publishers, Doubleday and Little Brown and Company. Noteworthy among the 25 novels to his credit is Stage to Lordsburg, which was adapted for the screen as the John Ford classic, Stagecoach. Haycox's writing evolved over 30 years from formula westerns to more universal themes in western settings. The last, and in the estimation of some, the best of these was The Earthbreakers, which he wrote shortly before his death in 1950. - NRHP