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First Claim

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Dusty from the trail, Giff Ballew rode into Harmony. He didn't know anybody, but this cow town was home. Seventeen years before, a conniving rancher named Weybright had stolen his pa's land, and Giff intended to get it back. But Weybright owned the judge, the sheriff, and every hired gun around. Giff's only ally was a spitfire woman with her own score to settle. And his only chance of winning his claim was to go one-on-one with the business end of a Colt .44...

149 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1960

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About the author

Luke Short

128 books36 followers
Luke Short (real name Frederick Dilley Glidden) was a popular Western writer.

Born in Kewanee, Illinois Glidden attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for two and a half years and then transferred to the University of Missouri at Columbia to study journalism.

Following graduation in 1930 he worked for a number of newspapers before becoming a trapper in Canada then later moved to New Mexico to be an archeologist's assistant.

After reading Western pulp magazines and trying to escape unemployment he started writing Western fiction. He sold his first short story and novel in 1935 under the pen name of Luke Short (which was also the name of a famous gunslinger in the Old West, though it's unclear if he was aware of that when he assumed the pen name.)

After publishing over a dozen novels in the 1930s, he started writing for films in the 40s. In 1948 alone four Luke Short novels appeared as movies. Some of his memorable film credits includes Ramrod (1947) and Blood on the Moon (1948). He continued to write novels, despite increasing trouble with his eyes, until his death in 1975. His ashes are buried in Aspen, Colorado, his home at the time of his death.




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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Profile Image for David.
Author 31 books2,280 followers
April 28, 2019
Another tight nourish frontier thriller from the master.
Profile Image for Carol.
426 reviews2 followers
August 24, 2024
Great classic Western. I love all the descriptive elements throughout the story. Rich characters.
3,198 reviews26 followers
October 4, 2018
A Luke Short Western/A Range War Over Confiscated Land at th Beginning of the Civil War

LS has penned a western suburbs young man who returns furtherance he knew as a child.. He finds a conspiracy with the ranch owner who had taken the lands from his father. He had returned to the area after his father died to reclaim the land per an act issued by President Lincoln. This is an excellent read for the genre.....DEHS
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews

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