Document Type
Book
Publication Date
1988
Abstract
In the mid-1950s noted journalist and historian Bernard De Voto referred to novelist Ernest Haycox (1899-1950), as “the old pro of horse opera,” the writer who “came closer than anyone else to making good novels” of the popular Western. Haycox, continued De Voto, “left his mark—I should say brand—on the style as well as the content of the Western” (14). In the nearly two generations since Haycox’s death many other commentators on the Old West as well as several writers of Westerns have agreed with De Voto in assigning Ernest Haycox a pivotal role in the development of the fictional Western. While specialists in Western American literature frequently dismiss Haycox and other writers of Westerns, those acquainted with the popular genre often compare his fiction favorably with that of Zane Grey, Luke Short, and Louis L’Amour.
Recommended Citation
Etulain, Richard W. Ernest Haycox. Boise, ID: Boise State University, 1988. Digital. Western Writers Series, 86.