Regarded by many of his contemporaries as the best Western fiction writer of the early twentieth century, Eugene Manlove Rhodes had a mystique that made him almost a cult figure for devotees of his work. From 1907 until his death on 27 June 1934 he contributed fiction, poetry, and essays regularly to The Saturday Evening Post and occasionally to McClure's, Cosmopolitan, and Redbook; book publication usually followed serialization within two years. Although Rhodes's fiction has been read in recent years chiefly for its "historical interest," it engages readers as much now as it did early in the century for its thrills, regional authenticity, commitment to truth, and distinctive style.

Although Rhodes devoted most of his life to writing fictional narratives set in the Southwest, specifically in New Mexico, he was a son of the Great Plains and thus a Westerner by birth. Rhodes was born in Tecumseh, Nebraska, on 19 January 1869. His...