Charles Alden Seltzer

Charles Alden Seltzer
Born	August 15, 1875 Janesville, Wisconsin
Died	February 9, 1942 (aged 66) Cleveland, Ohio
Resting place	Sunset Memorial Park, North Olmsted, Ohio
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	American
Genre	Western novels, screenplays

Seltzer's novel Riddle Gawne was serialized in The Argosy in 1917

Charles Alden Seltzer (15 August 1875 – 9 February 1942) was an American writer. He was a prolific author of western novels, had writing credits for more than a dozen film titles, and authored numerous stories published in magazines, most prominently in Argosy.^[1]

Life

Seltzer was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, the son of Lucien B. Seltzer and Oceania Hart of Columbus, Ohio. Before becoming a successful writer, he was variously a newsboy, telegraph messenger, painter, carpenter and manager of the circulation of a newspaper, building inspector, editor of a small newspaper, and an appraiser.

He married Ella Seltzer, and they had three sons and two daughters. His son Louis, later editor of the Cleveland Press, recalled that the family was quite poor when his father was struggling to break into the writing profession (he wrote two hundred stories before receiving an acceptance). During this time, Seltzer's wife brought him wrapping paper from the butcher to write on.^[2]

In addition to Argosy, Seltzer's work also appeared in Adventure, Short Stories, Blue Book, The Outing Magazine, Western Story Magazine ^[3] and the US edition of Pearson's Magazine. ^[4]

Seltzer wrote his westerns from the experience of five years living in New Mexico. Towards the end of his life, he was also elected mayor of his home-town, North Olmsted, Ohio.

Works

• The Council of Three (1900) - first book
• The Range Riders (1911)
• The Two-Gun Man (1911)
• The Triangle cupid (1912)
• The Coming of the law (1912)
• The Boss of the Lazy Y (1915)
• The Range boss (1916)
• The Vengeance of Jefferson Gawne (1917)
• “Firebrand” Trevison (1918)
• The Ranchman (1919)
• The Trail to yesterday (1919)
• The Trail Horde (1920)
• Beau Rand (1921)
• “Drag” Harlan (1921)
• West! (1922)
• The Way of the buffalo (1924)
• Last Hope Ranch (1925)
• Channing comes through (1925)
• "Slow" Burgess (1926)
• Land of the Free (1927)
• The Mesa (1928)
• Mystery range (1928)
• Brass commandments (1928)
• The Valley of the stars (1928)
• The Gentleman from Virginia (1928)
• The Red Brand (1929)
• The Raider (1929)
• Gone North (1930)
• A Son of Arizona (1931)
• Double Cross Ranch (1932)
• War On Wishbone Range (1932)
• Lonesome Ranch (1933)
• Clear the Trail (1933)
• West of Apache Pass (1934)
• Silver Spurs (1935)
• Kingdom in the cactus (1936)
• Parade of the empty boots (1937)
• Treasure ranch (1940)
• Arizona Jim (1942)
• So long, sucker (1943)

References

1. "Charles Alden Seltzer: the Men who make The Argosy". Pulp Rack. Retrieved 5 April 2011. reprinting 22 March 1930 profile in The Argosy.
2. "Crusading Seltzer was compassionate dynamo". Lakewood Public Library. Retrieved 5 April 2011. reprinting 20 April 1989 article from the Lakewood Sun Post.
3. Ed Hulse, The Blood 'n' Thunder Guide to Collecting Pulps . Murania Press, 2009. ISBN 0-9795955-0-9 (pp. 137-141 )
4. Charles Alden Seltzer at the Fictionmags Index.

External links

• Works by Charles Alden Seltzer at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Charles Alden Seltzer at Internet Archive
• Charles Alden Seltzer holdings at openlibrary.org
• Charles Alden Seltzer on IMDb
• "Charles Alden Seltzer". Find a Grave. Retrieved 5 April 2011.