Willis Todhunter Ballard

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Willis Todhunter Ballard (born December 13, 1903 in Cleveland , Ohio , † December 27, 1980 in Mount Dora , Florida ) was an American author. Ballard is considered one of the most experienced and resourceful western writers, but he also gained fame as a writer of crime novels.

Life

Ballard got his first writing jobs at Warner Brothers and Columbia Pictures , where he was employed in the 1920s. Most of his work was done without a mention of what he was doing. From 1927 he wrote over 1,000 short stories, 70 novels and 50 screenplays under numerous pseudonyms. Aliases were Brian Agar , PD Ballard , Parker Bonner , Hunter D'Allard , Harrison Hunt , Tod Hunt , John Hunter , Neil MacNeil , John Shepherd, and Jack Slade . For the epic Gold in California , he received the 1965 Track Award from the Western Writers of America for Best Historical Novel .

German-language publications (selection)

  • "Two-edged vengeance", AWA Verlag, Munich, 1953
  • "Die Silberhügel" (incident at sun mountain), AWA Verlag, Munich, 1954
  • "On a stony path" (west of quarantine), AWA Verlag, Munich, 1955
  • "Rusty Gold" (Superstition range), AWA Verlag, Munich, 1955
  • "Das rauhe Land" (Outlaw brand), AWA Verlag, Munich, 1955
  • "Controversial legacy" (rawhide gunman), AWA Verlag, Munich, 1955
  • "The Conspirators" (gunman from Texas), AWA Verlag, Munich, 1956
  • "Der Feuerkopf" (Showdown), AWA Verlag, Munich, 1956
  • "Die Emberhölle von Utah" (guns of the lawless), AWA Verlag, Munich, 1957
  • "The Silver Mine", AWA Verlag, Munich, 1957
  • "The track of evil" (roundup), AWA Verlag, Munich, 1958
  • "Between law and violence" (trail town marshal), AWA Verlag, Munich, 1959
  • "Silver bullets", as Parker Bonnet, AWA Verlag, Munich, 1959
  • "Vogelfrei"; Ullstein, 1978
  • Two daring fellows ; Heyne, Munich, 1978
  • The man from Yuma ; Heyne, Munich, 1979
  • Partner against death and the devil ; Heyne, Munich, 1979
  • The hell of Tayopa ; PMS-Verlag, Rastatt; 1985
  • Driven hunt for the predatory wolf ; PMS-Verlag, Rastatt; 1985
  • The brutal ranch ; PMS-Verlag, Rastatt; 1985
  • Lots of nice people ; Kelter, Hamburg, 1980
  • The Night Riders ; Kelter, Hamburg, 1980

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. http://www.westernwriters.org/spur_award_history.htm#1965 ( Memento from January 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive )