author
Oll Coomes
1845–1921
Best known for fast-moving Western dime novels, this Iowa writer turned frontier adventure into popular entertainment for a mass audience. He also lived a notably public life, balancing fiction writing with newspaper work, local politics, and civic service.
2 Audiobooks
The Boy Ranger; or, The Heiress of the Golden Horn
by Oll Coomes
About the author
Born in Licking County, Ohio, in 1845, Oliver Coomes—better known to readers as Oll Coomes—moved to Iowa as a boy and grew up in the world of early prairie settlement. He worked on the family farm and in his father's pottery, later taught school, studied law, and eventually made his home in Atlantic, Iowa.
Coomes became widely known in the late 19th century for writing Western and adventure dime novels, many of them published by Beadle and Adams. His stories, full of scouts, rangers, outlaws, and frontier dangers, helped shape the style of popular Western fiction for generations of readers. He also wrote under the name Will Dexter.
His career was not limited to fiction. He was active in journalism and public life in Iowa, serving as a newspaper editor and holding local office, including work connected with the state legislature and civic affairs in Atlantic. He died in 1921 after an automobile accident in Iowa, leaving behind a large body of lively popular fiction from the dime novel era.