Arthur Preston Hankins

Arthur Preston Hankins was an American author whose published life is usually dated 1880–1932. Library and public-domain book records show that he wrote a large number of novels and stories, many of them Westerns, and that several of his books remain widely circulated in reprint and ebook form.

A 1921 newspaper notice from Riverside, California, said The Jubilee Girl was his first novel and described him as a writer who had already spent more than eleven years contributing to well-known magazines. That helps place him as a working magazine writer before he became established as a novelist.

Hankins is also remembered for his connection to early film: movie databases credit him as the writer or source author behind silent-era productions including The Avenging Arrow, Fighting Fate, and The Boss of Camp Four. Public-domain listings and library catalogs preserve a broad sample of his fiction, including The She Boss, The Heritage of the Hills, Cole of Spyglass Mountain, Falcon, of Squawtooth, and The Valley of Arcana.