author
Earl Wayland Bowman
1875–1952
A Western storyteller with a larger-than-life Idaho public career, he wrote popular frontier fiction and saw his novel The Ramblin' Kid make its way to the screen. His papers also point to a busy life in journalism and state politics.
1 Audiobook
The Ramblin' Kid
by Earl Wayland Bowman
About the author
Born in Missouri on March 13, 1875, Earl Wayland Bowman became known for stories and novels set in the American West. Idaho collections describe him as a promoter of the state and the author of popular Western fiction, while film references note that his work reached Hollywood through adaptations of The Ramblin' Kid and related productions.
Bowman was more than a novelist. Archival records connect him with newspaper writing, magazine editing, and legislative service in Idaho, where he is identified as the state's first Socialist state senator in 1915. Those same records show a career that moved between literature, journalism, and public life.
He died in Los Angeles County, California, on September 5, 1952. Much of what survives about him now comes from archives in Idaho, including manuscripts, correspondence, clippings, and scrapbooks that preserve both his writing career and his unusual place in the state's political history.