Will Cook (writer)

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William Everett Cook
Born 1921
Died July 1964
Pen name Will Cook,
Frank Peace,
James Keene ,
Wade Everett
Occupation Novelist
Period 1950?64
Genre Western fiction

William Everett Cook (1921 ? July 1964), was a western writer who used the pen names Will Cook, James Keene, Wade Everett and Frank Peace . Called "a master western storyteller," [1] Cook published dozens of short stories and 50 novels before his death at age 42. A number of his stories and novels were turned into Hollywood westerns, including the 1961 John Ford film Two Rode Together .

Life [ edit ]

Born in Richmond, Indiana , [2] Cook ran away from home at age 16 and joined the U.S. Army cavalry [2] before serving as a pilot in the Pacific during World War II . During the war he was severely wounded in the leg but later returned to active duty. [2]

After the war Cook worked as a salvage worker, judo instructor, a bush pilot in Alaska, and as a deputy sheriff in California. [2] [3] Cook died of a heart attack in 1964 [3] while building a schooner in which he and his wife Thea hoped to sail around the world. [2]

Writing career [ edit ]

Cook started writing westerns in 1951 and published 100 short stories and 50 novels [3] before dying at the age of 42. [4]

In 1959, Cook used the penname Wade Everett for a series of paperbacks released by Ballantine Books , with these novels being reprinted numerous times over the following decades. Among these was The Last Scout , published in 1960 and considered one of his best novels. [3] The novel is about an unrepentant hell raiser who comes to Deadwood to live with his daughter's family. [2] Other notable books of his include The Wind River Kid (Fawcett, 1958), where the main character of The Last Scout is now a drunk who gets thrown into the job of sheriff, and The Wranglers (Fawcett, 1960), about an older horse-breaker and his partner who travel to monument country in Southern Utah while dealing with personal issues. [2]

Publishers Weekly called Cook "a master western storyteller. [1] His fiction frequently featured the use of "recurring characters to link otherwise standalone stories," as shown in his collection of novellas The Devil's Roundup , which Booklist called "One of the best posthumous western collections to be offered in many years. [4] Most of his books deal with traditional western themes of reformed outlaws, range wars and fights with Native Americans, but some also focused on romance. [3]

After Cook's death a number of posthumous books by him were released. In addition, his Everett byline had become valuable enough that Ballantine Books turned it into a house name for novels written by other authors. [2] Among these was 1968's The Whiskey Traders, which was released under the Everett byline but written by Giles A. Lutz . [3] [2]

Many of Cook's short stories including "A Gunman Came to Town" were published in The Saturday Evening Post . [5]

Cook's archives are held in the University of Oregon Libraries . [6]

Hollywood adaptations [ edit ]

Cook's 1959 novel Comanche Captives inspired the 1961 John Ford film Two Rode Together , [7] [8] with the novel being re-released that year as a movie tie-in by Bantam Books in the United States and as a hardcover in the United Kingdom.

In addition, Cook's stories and novels were also adapted into a number of other Hollywood westerns including episodes of the TV shows Cheyenne , Bronco , and Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre along with the film Quincannon, Frontier Scout and the Spaghetti Western Gli uomini dal passo pesante . [9] [10] [11]

Bibliography [ edit ]

As Frank Peace [12] [ edit ]

Single novels [ edit ]

  • Easy Money (1955)
  • The Brass Brigade (1956)
  • Bandit's Trail (1974)

Omnibus collection [ edit ]

  • The Outlaw's Revenge: And Other Bible Mystery Stories for Boys and Girls (1950)

As Will Cook [13] [ edit ]

Single novels [ edit ]

  • Frontier Feud (1954)
  • Prairie Guns (1954)
  • Fury at Painted Rock (1955)
  • Sabrina Kane (1955)
  • Trumpets to the West (1956)
  • Apache Ambush (1958)
  • Badman's Holiday (1958)
  • Elizabeth, by Name aka The Crossing (1958)
  • Guns of North Texas (1958)
  • The Wind River Kid (1958)
  • Comanche Captives (1959, with an excerpt published as a short story in the Saturday Evening Post [14] )
  • The Outcasts (1959)
  • Killer behind a Badge (1960)
  • Outcast of Cripple Creek (1960)
  • The Wranglers (1960)
  • The Peacemakers (1961)
  • Two Rode Together (1961)
  • The Breakthrough (1963)
  • The Tough Texan (1963)
  • Last Command (1964)
  • Ambush at Antlers Spring (1967)
  • The Apache fighter (1967)
  • The Drifter (1969)
  • The Rain Tree (1996)
  • The Last Scout (1997)
  • The Devil's Roundup (2002)

A Saga of Texas [ edit ]

  1. Until Day Breaks (1999)
  2. Until Shadows Fall (2000)
  3. Until Darkness Disappears (2001)

See also [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

  1. ^ a b " Review of Rain Tree by Will Cook ," Publishers Weekly , 10/02/1996.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Entry for Cook, Will(iam Everett)," Encyclopedia of Frontier and Western Fiction edited by Jon Tuska and Vicki Piekarski, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1983, page 52 to 54.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Entry on William Everett Cook" by R. E. Briney, Twentieth-Century Western Writers edited by Geoff Sadler, St. James Press, 1992, pages 140 to 142.
  4. ^ a b "Review of The Devil's Roundup" by Wes Lukowsky, Booklist, Sept. 15, 2002.
  5. ^ Great Westerns from the Saturday Evening Post edited by Julie Eisenhower, Curtis Publishing Company, 1976, page 50.
  6. ^ William (Will) Everett Cook papers , 1952-1964, Archives West Orbis Cascade Alliance, accessed 9/24/2022.
  7. ^ Race in American Film: Voices and Visions that Shaped a Nation edited by Daniel Bernardi and Michael Green, ABC-CLIO, 2017, page 876.
  8. ^ The John Ford Encyclopedia by Sue Matheson, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019, page 346.
  9. ^ Will Cook entry , IMDb , accessed 9/24/2022.
  10. ^ Feature Films, 1950-1959: A United States Filmography by Alan G. Fetrow, McFarland, 1999, page 337.
  11. ^ Annuario del cinema italiano & audiovisivi, Centro di studi cultura , promozione e difusione del cinema, 1975, page 75.
  12. ^ Frank Peace in Fantastic Fiction , retrieved 30 October 2008
  13. ^ Will Cook in Fantastic Fiction , retrieved 30 October 2008
  14. ^ "Comanche Captives" by Will Cook, Saturday Evening Post. 4/25/1959, Vol. 231 Issue 43, p48-114. 5p.
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