Walt Coburn

Born in White Sulphur Springs, Montana Territory, on October 23, 1889, Walter John Coburn grew up around his family’s Circle C Ranch, where he worked as a cowhand. He later served in the Army aviation corps during the World War I era and spent time ranching, surveying, and working across Montana and Arizona—experiences that became the foundation for his fiction and nonfiction.

Coburn’s first story was accepted in 1922, and he soon became one of the most prolific writers in the pulp-western field. He published roughly 1,000 stories and 40 books, with his work celebrated for its authentic range settings and cowboy life. He lived in Arizona for much of his later life, moving between Globe, Prescott, and Tucson, and his autobiography, Walt Coburn: Western Word Wrangler, appeared posthumously in 1974.