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Wayne D. Overholser
American Western writer (1906–1996) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Wayne D. Overholser (September 4, 1906, in Pomeroy, Washington – August 27, 1996, in Boulder, Colorado), was an American Western writer. Overholser won the 1953 First Spur Award for Best Western Novel for Law Man using the pseudonym Lee Leighton. Law Man was made into the motion picture Star in the Dust, starring John Agar and Richard Boone (and Clint Eastwood in his first - uncredited - Western role), in 1956.[1] In 1955 he won the 1954 (second) Spur Award for The Violent Land.[2] He won the Spur Award for a third time in 1969 for his juvenile novel about the Meeker Massacre, with Lewis Patten.[3] Three additional pseudonyms were John S. Daniels, Dan J. Stevens and Joseph Wayne; combinations of his three sons' names.
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Early life
Overholser grew up on two different farms in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.[4][5] He graduated from Pleasant Hill High School in 1924.[5] He first attended Albany College, then the Oregon Normal School.[5] He taught school in Tillamook and Bend.[4]
Overholser attended summer school from 1927-1934, taking botany classes and studying under writing professor W. F. G. Thacher (who also mentored Ernest Haycox, whom Overholser cited as an influence) at the University of Oregon, graduating in 1934 with a bachelor of science degree.[4][5][6][7] He married Evaleth Miller in 1934, and the couple traveled to Missoula, Montana in 1935 where Wayne studied with E. Douglas Branch and Robert Penn Warren.[5]
He sold his first story to Popular Western, a pulp magazine, in 1936.[5]
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In popular culture
Overholser was referenced in Stephen King's novel Wolves of the Calla, part of King's Dark Tower, in which he was both mentioned explicitly, and is the namesake of a character in the town of Calla Bryn Sturgis.[8]
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Collections
- The Best Western Stories of Wayne D. Overholser (1984) aka The Best Western Stories
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References
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