Author Frederick (Fred) Benjamin Gipson (1908-1973), born in Mason, Texas, graduated from Mason High School in 1926 and entered the University of Texas in 1933 after working as a rancher. He wrote for the Daily Texan and the Ranger, but left the university before graduating due to a lack of money. By 1940, he had worked for several newspapers, including the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, the San Angelo Standard-Times, and the Denver Post. After quitting journalism, he began selling short stories to pulp Western magazines. Gipson published his first book, entitled The Fabulous Empire: Colonel Zack Miller’s Story, in 1946. It performed moderately well, but his second book, Hound-Dog Man (1949), sold over 250,000 copies in its first year. He wrote many books, including The Home Place (1950), Big Bend: A Homesteader’s Story (1952), Cowhand: The Story of a Working Cowboy (1953), The Trail-Driving Rooster (1955), and Recollection Creek (1955). He also wrote the children’s classic, Old Yeller, in 1956, which received a Newbery Honor in 1957, and its sequel, Savage Sam, in 1962.
Source:
Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. “Gipson, Frederick Benjamin,” http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/GG/fgi32.html (accessed August 13, 2010).
From the guide to the Gipson, Fred, Papers 89-321., 1963-1967, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
