Hangtree range

by William Hopson

Vintage paperback

221 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

William Lee Hopson (1907 - 1975) was primarily a Western author. He was sometimes published under the name William L. Hopson and used a pseudonym, John Sims, for at least four Western novels.

After joining the U.S. Marines, Hopson served as a weapons instructor during World War II. Afterwards, he had various jobs as a coyote hunter and trick flyer. At the same time, he wrote crime novels and Western stories for pulp magazines between 1938 and 1958, as well as several novels, some of which were reworkings of previous short stories.

At a presentation in a newspaper in 1954, Hopson said he began by determining the background and reading in on time and place, and then sketching out his main character to give him a problem to solve. When this was done, he believed that the book was basically writing itself. Hopson's publishers wanted nine books a year, but Hopson got it down to six and was happy if it was four or five annually.

After living family life in Arizona for eight years in the 1950s, Hopson moved to California, where he lived until his death in 1975.

Reviews

[Timothy McNulty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apart from some of the historical facts which can differ greatly depends on what part of the country you live in my biggest problem with this book is that the main character (if in fact there is one) comes in late in the story ( chapter 12 of a 20 chapter book to be exact) . Still I managed to read from cover to cover just overlooking and understanding that not everyone will agree with me or my views.