Ralph Compton Explained

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

Autumn of the Gun
Festival Of Spies
Clarion's Call
Devil's Canyon
Navarro
Bullet Creek
Guns Of The Canyonlands
By The Horns
Rio Largo
Deadwood Gulch
The Killing Season
Texas Empire
The Bloody Trail
Blood Duel
Shadow Of The Gun
Ride The Hard Trail
Bullet For A Bad Man
Outlaw's Reckoning
Stryker's Revenge
The Burning Range
The Stranger From Abilene
The Ghost Of Apache Creek
Down On The Gila River
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

Trail Drive books written by other authors under Compton's byline:

The Dakota Trail by Robert Vaughan
Bozeman Trail by Robert Vaughan
The Alamosa Trail by Robert Vaughan
The Abilene Trail by Dusty Richards
Trail to Fort Smith by Dusty Richards
The Palo Duro Trail by Jory Sherman
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
The Badlands Trail by Lyle Brandt
The Saltwater Trail by Jackson Lowry

Trail of the Gunfighter

The Dawn of Fury
The Killing Season
Autumn of the Gun

Border Empire

The Border Empire
Sixguns and Double Eagles
Train To Durango

Sundown Riders

North to the Bitterroot
Across the Rio Colorado
The Winchester Run
Devil's Canyon
Whiskey River
The Skeleton Lode
Runaway Stage
Do Or Die
Bucked Out In Dodge
West of Pecos

Sundown Riders books written by other authors under Compton's byline:

Demon's Pass by Robert Vaughan
The Trail's End by E.L. Ripley
The Wolves of Seven Pines by E.L. Ripley
Flames of Silver by Jackson Lowry
Prairie Fire, Kansas by John Shirley
Tin Star by Jackson Lowry
Never Bet Against the Bullet by Jackson Lowry
Calvert's Last Bluff by E.L. Ripley
Seven Roads to vengeance by Carlton Stowers
The Outlaw Hunters by D.B. Pulliam

Danny Duggin Series

Death Rides A Chestnut Mare
The Shadow of a Noose
Death Along the Cimarron by Ralph Cotton
Riders of Judgment by Ralph Cotton

Books written by other authors under Compton's byline

The following novels were written by a variety of authors under Compton's byline and published by the Ralph Compton Estate (not including the Trail Drive Series or Sundown Riders Series, which are already listed above). In every one of these books, the first chapter is preceded by Compton's five-paragraph eulogy to "The Immortal Cowboy" which begins with: "This is respectfully dedicated to the 'American cowboy.' His was the saga sparked by the turmoil that followed the Civil War, and the passing of more than a century has by no means diminished the flame."^[1]

John Edward Ames