Short, Luke, 1908-1975

Frederick Dilley Glidden was born in Kewanee, Illinois in 1908. A graduate of the University of Missouri, he began his career as a reporter for a series of midwest daily newspapers. During the Depression, he trapped for furs in Canada. He married Florence Elder in 1934 and fathered three children during the next few years. Glidden's writing career began in earnest when he started submitting western stories to pulp magazines while living in Santa Fe. Once he took on an agent, Marguerite Harper, his work began to sell under the pen name Luke Short. By the end of the 1930's he had written fourteen novels and numerous short stories. The 1940's were the most profitable decade in Glidden's career. He worked as a scriptwriter in Hollywood and a number of his books were made into movies, starring Joel McCrea, Randolph Scott, and Robert Mitchum among others. He signed contracts with paperback publishers and generated a lifetime total of over 26 million copies in sales. Toward the end of the decade, Glidden broke out of the pulps and into the slicks. Collier's and Saturday evening post serialized nine Luke Short novels. During the next twenty years, Glidden tried different ventures, none too successful. He wrote more screenplays, but these were rejected. The thorium company he founded was a bust. There were several cases of plagiarism of his stories by others which never saw the courtroom. He tried other genres, but received little support. Residing in Aspen, Glidden came to love Colorado's natural beauty and became active in civic affairs. At the end of the 1960's, he returned to writing westerns and produced six novels. He developed throat cancer and died in August 1975. Source: Gale, Robert L. Luke Short. Twayne's United States Authors Series, 1981.