Richardson, Gladwell

Gladwell Grady Richardson, the son of Samuel I. and Susanna Belle Richardson, was born 4 September 1903 in Alvarado, Texas. He was a prolific Western writer of books, stories, and non-fiction articles. He served in the U.S. Navy, 1921-1924 and 1942-1945. Richardson worked in or operated trading posts in Tuba City, Shonto, Inscription House, and the Leupp area on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. His pseudonyms included Calico Jones, Frank Warner, Grant Maxwell, Warren O'Riley, Buck Coleman, George Blacksnake, Maurice Kildare, Carey James, John R. Winslowe, and others. He lived in Flagstaff, Arizona, the last several decades of his life. He died 14 June 1979 at the Fort Whipple Veterans Hospital in Prescott, Arizona.

Gladwell Toney Richardson was born in Alvarado, Texas, September 4, 1903. He came from a family which owned and operated trading posts throughout the American Southwest (surnames: Smith, McAdams, and Richardson). His father, Samuel I. Richardson, began his career as a trader in Arizona, 1896 (also owned cattle ranches in Oklahoma and Arizona). Gladwell Richardson began his own trading post career at sixteen years old with a job in Houck, New Mexico,. After a stint in the Navy, 1921-1924, (later serving from 1942-45, and 1946 through the Korean conflict, ca. 1952) he worked at the Shonto Trading Post, Arizona (1925). He also began his writing career in 1925. His first published works were sea adventures (Street and Smith's Sea Stories magazine). However, the bulk of Richardson's work is western novels and magazine series, some 300 publications totaling an estimated sixty million published words. Despite an active writing career, Richardson continued to work as a trader at the Two Guns Trading Post, east of Flagstaff, while maintaining a house in Flagstaff, Arizona for himself and family, wife Millicent, daughters Cecile [Cobb] and Toni [Davis].

Besides his own name, Richardson wrote under numerous pen names including: Maurice Kildare (and Kildaresen), Ormand Clarkson (and Klarkson), Cary James, Pete Kent, Calico Jones, George Blacksnake, Frank Warner, John "R. Winslowe (and Winslow), Warren O'Riley, Sinclair Bower, Buck Coleman, Jeff Corner, Robert Davis, Stuart Flag, M.I. Ford, John S. Haines, Lolliard (?), Jack Lowence, Charles McAdams, Grant Maxwell, Higgs Meador, Asdzani Noodi Naalte, Earl Price, "Toney" Richardson (as he was often called), John Robert Ringo, and Don Teton. A sample of book titles includes: The Trail to Nowhere, Arizona Guns, Cowboy Joe, Rio Guns, Gun Thunder, The Rattlesnake Range, The Boothill Kid, Night Riders, War Horse Range and The River of the Lone Rope.

Richardson died in 1980 after a short stay at the Fort Whipple Veterans Administration Center, Prescott, Arizona.

For a complete item [container] list of materials in the Richardson Collection (AHS #48), contact the reference department at Northern Arizona University, Cline Library Special Collections and Archives, or contact the Arizona Historical Society/Flagstaff Archivist.