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A native Oregonian, born in a suburb of Portland on October 1, 1899, Ernest Haycox became an author with a world-wide audience. His name is synonymous with Westerns, a genre of stories set in the American West during the period of greatest expansion, 1830-1880. His career began with the publication of some of his short stories while he was still a college student, and spanned nearly three decades. Haycox attended Reed College in 1920 and transferred to the University of Oregon in 1921 to study writing. He graduated in 1923 with a degree in journalism.
His first publication credits came from the pulp magazines of the day, such as Sea Stories, Western Story, Adventure, and Short Stories. In June 1931 Haycox broke into the "slicks," magazines like Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post, and his popularity soared. His stories remained regular features, appearing serialized form throughout the thirties and forties.
Haycox had a parallel career as a novelist. His first book, Free Grass, was published in 1929 and was followed by another novel almost every year until his death in 1950. A final book, The Adventurers, was published posthumously in 1955.
The Ernest Haycox Papers comprise manuscripts of his short stories and novels, magazine tearsheets, freestanding volumes and research material. Manuscripts for some of his earliest short stories are missing, but most of these are represented by tearsheets. All genres of his work are found in manuscript form—westerns, historical dramas, contemporary western romances, and adventure stories—with the exception of his detective stories. The manuscripts are arranged chronologically by date of publication, as organized by the donor. Draft versions are not, as a rule, numbered in Mr. Haycox's hand, and tearsheets are filed immediately after the draft which most closely matches the published version. The inventory lists stories represented solely by tearsheets in quotation marks. Each draft citation includes some minor description of the manuscript. The term "draft" denotes a typed, complete (unless otherwise noted) manuscript. Carbons are not duplicates of the previous drafts; rather they are the extant copy of a missing original draft. An exception is a duplicate carbon extensively revised. The term "revised" refers to all handwritten and typed changes and strike overs. "Version" appears rarely and only as a means of describing an early draft that is very different from the final story. Page counts are noted, as are page revisions, character sketches, and preliminary notes, as well as original titles, if different from the published piece. The freestanding volumes of Haycox novels and anthologies containing his stories are arranged in order of publication; anthologies are alphabetized, and foreign versions are integrated within each title.
Photographic prints are also included.