Ralph Compton

Ralph Compton (April 11, 1934 – September 16, 1998) was an American writer of western fiction.

A native of St. Clair County, Alabama, Compton stood six-foot-eight without his boots. He worked as a musician, a radio announcer, a songwriter, and a newspaper columnist. Mr. Compton began his writing career with a notable work, The Goodnight Trail, which was chosen as a finalist for the Western Writers of America "Medicine Pipe Bearer Award" bestowed upon the "Best Debut Novel". He was also the author of the Sundown Rider series and the Border Empire series. In the last decade of his life, he authored more than two dozen novels, some of which made it onto the USA Today bestseller list for fiction.

Ralph Compton died in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 64. Since his death, Signet Books has continued the author's legacy, releasing new novels, written by authors such as Joseph A. West and David L. Robbins, under Compton's byline.

Novels

• Festival Of Spies
• Clarion's Call
• Showdown at Two-Bit Creek (ISBN 0-451-20854-4)
• Doomsday Rider (ISBN 0-451-21080-8)
• Vengeance Rider
• Navarro
• Bullet Creek
• For The Brand
• Guns Of The Canyonlands
• By The Horns
• Rio Largo
• Deadwood Gulch
• Texas Empire
• A Wolf In The Fold
• Bluff City
• The Bloody Trail
• West Of The Law
• Blood Duel
• The Convict trail
• Shadow Of The Gun
• Death Of A Bad Man
• Ride The Hard Trail
• Blood On The Gallows
• Bullet For A Bad Man
• Outlaw's Reckoning
• The Man From Nowhere
• Fatal Justice (ISBN 0-451-22859-6)
• Stryker's Revenge
• North To The Salt Fork
• Rusted Tin
• The Burning Range
• The Stranger From Abilene
• The Ghost Of Apache Creek
• Slaughter Canyon
• Dead Man's Ranch
• One Man's Fire
• Tucker's Reckoning
• Down On The Gila River
• Brimstone Trail
• Straight Shooter
• Hard Ride To Wichita
• The Hunted
• Double-Cross Ranch

The Trail Drive Series

• The Goodnight Trail
• The Western Trail
• The Chisholm Trail
• The California Trail
• The Shawnee Trail
• The Virginia City Trail
• The Dodge City Trail
• The Oregon Trail
• The Santa Fe Trail
• The Old Spanish Trail
• The Green River Trail
• The Deadwood Trail
• The Bandera Trail

Written by other authors under Compton's byline:

• The Dakota Trail by Robert Vaughan (ISBN 0-451-20417-4)
• Bozeman Trail by Robert Vaughan (ISBN 0-451-20690-8)
• The Alamosa Trail by Robert Vaughan (ISBN 0-451-20582-0)
• The Abilene Trail by Dusty Richards (ISBN 978-0-451-21043-2)
• Trail to Fort Smith by Dusty Richards (ISBN 0-451-21123-5)
• The Palo Duro Trail by Jory Sherman (ISBN 0-451-21369-6)
• The Ogallala Trail by Dusty Richards
• The Ellsworth Trail by Jory Sherman
• The Tenderfoot Trail by Joseph A West
• Trail To Cottonwood Falls by Dusty Richards
• The Amarillo Trail by Jory Sherman

Trail of the Gunfighter

• The Dawn of Fury (ISBN 0-451-18631-1)
• The Killing Season (ISBN 0-451-18787-3)
• Autumn of the Gun (ISBN 0-451-19045-9)

Border Empire

• The Border Empire (ISBN 0-451-19209-5)
• Sixguns and Double Eagles (ISBN 0-451-19331-8)
• Train To Durango (ISBN 0-451-19237-0)

Sundown Riders

• North to the Bitterroot
• Across the Rio Colorado
• The Winchester Run
• Devil's Canyon (ISBN 0-451-19519-1)
• Whiskey River (ISBN 0-451-19332-6)
• The Skeleton Lode (ISBN 0-451-19762-3)
• Demon's Pass by Robert Vaughan (ISBN 0-451-19763-1)
• Runaway Stage
• Do Or Die
• Nowhere, Texas (ISBN 0-451-21132-4)
• Bucked Out In Dodge
• West of Pecos

Danny Duggin Series

• Death Rides A Chestnut Mare (ISBN 0-451-19761-5)
• The Shadow of a Noose
• Death Along the Cimmaron (ISBN 0-451-20769-6)
• Riders of Judgment by Ralph W. Cotton (ISBN 0-451-20214-7)

External links

• The Tennessee Writers Project Contains mini-biography + bibliography