Haycox is the writer most often credited with raising western fiction
up from the pulps into the mainstream; his influence on other writers
of western fiction cannot be overestimated. He was a prolific writer,
with almost three hundred short stories and more than twenty novels to
his credit, and is among the most successful writers of American
western fiction. Many of Haycox's stories were published in pulp
magazines such as "Western Story" before he wrote stories for
"Collier's Magazine" and "The Saturday Evening Post." His final works,
"The Earthbreakers" and "The Adventurers," were published after his
death.
The Haycox stories optioned but never produced include his novel "Alder
Gulch" (which was to have been filmed in 1953, as another
Anthony Mann-James Stewart-Borden Chase collaboration); and his novel "Border Trumpet,"
which was adapted by Louis S. Peterson in 1956 for Figaro Productions but never
filmed.
Received a Doctor of Literature from Lewis and Clark College in 1946.
Biography in: "American National Biography." Supplement 1, pp. 261-262.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.