author
William R. (William Rheem) Lighton
1866–1923
A self-taught American writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he turned his experiences across the Midwest and West into historical adventures, frontier fiction, and nonfiction. He is especially remembered for work connected to the American West and for a life that blended writing with farming and public life.
1 Audiobook
Lewis and Clark Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
by William R. (William Rheem) Lighton
About the author
Born in Pennsylvania in 1866 and raised largely in Nebraska, William Rheem Lighton grew up reading widely after a childhood injury kept him out of school for a time. He later studied law, was admitted to the bar in Kansas and Nebraska, and spent time traveling and teaching in the West before building his literary career.
Lighton wrote novels and historical works with a strong interest in frontier life, western settings, and American expansion. His books include Lewis and Clark, Sons of Strength, Uncle Mac's Nebrasky, and Happy Hollow Farm. Some sources also note that his 1912 novel Billy Fortune and the Hard Proposition was adapted into the 1920 silent film Water, Water, Everywhere.
In 1908, he bought land near Fayetteville, Arkansas, which he called Happy Hollow Farm, and became known there not only as a writer but also as an energetic experimenter in agriculture. He died in 1923, leaving behind a body of work that reflects both the romance and the roughness of life in the American West.