Archives West Finding Aid

Frederick Dilley Glidden was born in Kewanee, Illinois in 1908. A graduate of the University of Missouri, he began his early career as a general reporter for a series of Midwest daily newspapers. Not lasting long at any of the papers, the Depression found him trapping for furs in Canada. He married Florence Elder in 1934 and, during the next few years had three children.

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. It is not clear who came up with the pen name Like Short- Ms. Harper or Glidden himself- but apparently enough of his audience appreciated this accolade to the real-life man, and sales were not hindered. By the end of the 1930's he had turned out fourteen novels and numerous short stories.

The 1940's proved to be the most profitable decade in Glidden's career. For the first few years, he worked as a scriptwriter in Hollywood. A number of his books were made into movies, with stars such as Joel McCrea, Randolph Scott, and Robert Mitchum in the lead roles. He signed contracts with paperback publishers, generating 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, such as Collier's and Saturday Evening Post. Between the two magazines, nine Luke Short novels were serialized.

During the next twenty years or so, Glidden tried a series of different ventures, none very successful. He wrote more screenplays in hopes of landing more movies, but these were rejected. The thorium company he founded proved to be a bust. There were several cases of plagiarism of his stories by others, none of which ever saw the courtroom. He also tried other genres of writing, but received little encouragement. Residing in Aspen, he came to love Colorado's natural beauty and became active in civic affairs.

His writing came full circle when, by the end of the 1960's, he had returned to writing westerns on a full-time basis and produced six novels. Despite rapidly deteriorating eye sight, Glidden continued to write, but discovered that he had throat cancer. He died in August, 1975.

Source: Gale, Robert L. Luke Short. Twayne's United States Authors Series, 1981.