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Book Review
| On a Silver Desert: The Life of Ernest Haycox. By Ernest Haycox Jr. Foreword by Ronald L. Davies. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003. xx + 308 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95.)
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Ernest Haycox Jr. has titled his biography for one of his father's western novels, The Silver Desert (New York, 1935). Set in Nevada, it is about three generations of Sebastians who own Barrier, a 250,000 acre ranch east of Reno toward Tonopah (named "Tumpah" by Haycox). |
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Ernest Haycox (1899–1950), known to his friends as Erny, was a hard-working writer and produced some 24 full-length books and 270 short stories, novellas, and essays, and was in demand as a public speaker. Born in Portland, Oregon, he grew up in poverty, found odd jobs as a boy, served with the Oregon National Guard in France, and paid tuition at the University of Oregon by writing short stories and working summers. Haycox's first motion picture sale was "Stage to Lordsburg," a story that appeared in Collier's in April 1937. Produced by Walter Wanger as Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939), the film brought fame to Haycox and launched John Wayne's career. |
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