L. P. Holmes (1895–1988), also known as Matt Stuart, was the author of several outstanding Western novels, including Somewhere They Die, which won the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America. Born in a log cabin in the heart of the Rocky Mountains near Breckenridge, Colorado, he moved with his family when very young to Northern California. It was there that his father and older brothers built the ranch house where he grew up and where, in later life, he would live again. He published his first story, “The Passing of the Ghost,” in Action Stories in 1925. He was paid half a cent per word and received a check for forty dollars. He went on to contribute nearly six hundred stories of varying lengths to the magazine market as well as to write numerous Western novels. In his stories, one finds the common themes in Western fiction: the loyalty that unites one man to another, the pride one must take in his work and a job well done, the innate generosity of most who populate his communities, and the vital relationship between a man and a woman in making a better life. |
