Eugene Manlove Rhodes [1869-1934] at 'Readers of the Purple Sage' Western Bookstore

"This man's writings have a variety of charms; in sensitive, vivid description; in clear characterizations; in an easy,
light-running style, warm with humor and brilliant with wit. In time, place, and character he is American of the Americans . . .
Can you tell me why the work of Eugene Manlove Rhodes is not better known?"
— letter to The Saturday Review of Literature, August 1924

Eugene Manlove Rhodes was born on 19 January 1869 at Tecumseh, Nebraska. His father was a tailor, an infantry officer for Illinois during the American Civil War, a member of the Nebraska Legislature, and superintendent of the Mescalero Indian Reservation in New Mexico. Eugene was raised in central New Mexico and became an expert horseman as a teenager. After attending two years of college in California, he worked as a prospector and as a freight hauler, then started a 6,000-acre ranch in Sierra County, New Mexico.

At age thirty he married a widow named May, with two sons; a few years later they moved to upstate New York to care for her father. Eugene became a farmer and began writing stories about his beloved New Mexico. His books were popular with the public, but he did not achieve financial success.

He and his family returned to New Mexico in 1926, where they lived in Santa Fe, then Alamogordo, then near Three Rivers. Ill health forced him to move to California, where he spent time with other writers of the colony in La Jolla. He died of a heart attack at home in Pacific Beach on 27 June 1934; his will asked that he be buried in the mountains near his former New Mexico ranch.

Eugene Manlove Rhodes wrote a dozen books of fiction and poetry, several of which were filmed during the Silent Era. He is credited with inventing the phrase 'Land of Enchantment', published in the 1914 novelette "Bransford In Arcadia", and since made the official state nickname of New Mexico. He was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in 1958.

"Good Men and True" [novelette 1910] Illustrations by H. T. Dunn = Jeff Bransford in Juarez, Mexico

"Bransford In Arcadia, or, The Little Eohippus" [novelette 1914] = Jeff Bransford is charged with a bank robbery
http://www.amazon.com/Bransford-Arcadia-Eohippus-Western-Frontier/dp/0806112611/
later published as "Bransford of Rainbow Range" http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33498

"Desire of The Moth" and "The Come On" [1916] illustrations by H.T. Dunn
http://www.amazon.com/Desire-Moth-Come-ebook/dp/B00847KA6U/
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11960

"West Is West" [1917]
http://www.amazon.com/West-Eugene-Manlove-Rhodes/dp/116001700X/

"Stepsons of Light" [1921]
http://www.amazon.com/Stepsons-Light-Western-Frontier-Library/dp/080610841X/
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32704

"Say Now Shibboleth" [1921]
http://www.amazon.com/Say-shibboleth-Eugene-Manlove-Rhodes/dp/1175803189/

"Copper Streak Trail" [1922]
http://www.amazon.com/Copper-Streak-Western-Frontier-Library/dp/0806108975/
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14545

"The Trusty Knaves" [novelette 1933]
http://www.amazon.com/Trusty-Knaves-Western-Frontier-Library/dp/0806109750/

"Penalosa" [1934]
http://www.archive.org/stream/The_Santa_Fe_Writers_Editions/Penalosa
http://www.archive.org/download/The_Santa_Fe_Writers_Editions/Penalosa.mobi

"The Proud Sheriff" [1935]
http://www.amazon.com/Proud-Sheriff-Western-Frontier-Library/dp/0806114266/

"Sunset Land: The Best Novels of Eugene Manlove Rhodes" omnibus [1955] Introduction by J. Frank Dobie
"Three Great Novels of The West": "Good Men and True", "Bransford of Rainbow Range", and "The Trusty Knaves"
Dell D-152 mass pb [1959] out of print/scarce

	"The Rhodes Reader: Stories of Virgins, Villains, and Varmints" [1957] 15 stories selected by W.H. Hutchinson Conflicting information, possibly 15 previously uncollected stories and two essays: "A Number of Things"; "Aforesaid Bates"; "The Barred Door"; "The Bird In The Bush"; "Cheerful Land"; "The Come On"; "Consider The Lizard"; "The Enchanted Valley"; "The Fool's Heart"; "In Defense of Pat Garrett"; "The Long Shift"; "Loved I Not Honor More"; "No Mean City"; "The Numismatist"; "Sticky Pierce, Diplomat"; "The Trouble Man"; and "The West That Was" Univ Oklahoma Press 8x5½ 2nd edition pb [1975] out of print/used Univ Oklahoma Press 8x5¼ 2nd edition hardcover [1975] out of print/used Univ Oklahoma Press 9x6 hardcover [1957] out of print/used
	"The Line of Least Resistence" [limited edition 1958] Edited by W.H. Hutchinson Edition of 500 copies, each signed by editor Hutchinson Hurst & Yount pb [1958] out of print/scarce
	"Copper Streak Trail and Other Westerns" for Kindle [2010] Kindle Edition from Halcyon Press Ltd. [6/2010] for $1.99 Three 'unexpurgated' early XXth Century Western novels: "Copper Streak Trail" 1922], "Stepsons of Light" [1921], and "The Desire of The Moth and The Come On" [1916]

"Bransford In Arcadia; or, The Little Eohippus" short [1914] (novel) /tt0256657/

"Within An Inch of His Life" short [1914] story "Wildcat Represents" /tt0257273/

"Four Faces West" [United Artists Aug 1948]

'Four Faces West' Western movie starring Joel McCrea

There are no bad guys, and not a single gunshot is fired. Four people meet under unusual circumstances: a drifter turned bank robber, a nurse from the east, new marshall Pat Garrett, and a shrewd gambler. • Filmed at San Rafael in NW New Mexico, also near Gallup & Ramah; directed by Alfred E. Green; based on the classic Western novel "Paso Por Aqui" by Eugene Manlove Rhodes; starring Joel McCrea, Frances Dee, Charles Bickford, Joseph Calleia, William Conrad, Martin Garralaga & Raymond Largay; W.G.A. nom for Best Script
Republic Pictures b&w DVD [7/2003] out of prodn/used
Republic Pictures b&w VHS [1998] for $9.93
full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia

"Rare Specimen" episode of the "Colt .45" TV series
[Warner Bros./ABC-TV Feb 1958]

comic book cover from "Colt .45" TV series, circa 1958

Undercover government agent Chris Colt is wounded during a train robbery; a woman passenger uses a piece of needlework to patch up his bullet-torn jacket, and this piece of fabric provides a valuable clue later on. • Produced by William T. Orr & Roy Huggins; directed by Leslie H. Martin-son; written by Gene Levitt, based on a story by Eugene Manlove Rhodes; starring Wayde Preston, Kasey Rogers, Charles Cooper, Frank Ferguson & Phil Tead
DVD/Blu-ray not available • full credits at IMDb

"Recognition: The Poems of Eugene Manlove Rhodes" [1997] illustrated by Martha Julian
from The Friends of the Alamogordo Public Library

wife May Louise Davison Purple Rhodes [], her 2nd marriage 1899, widowed 1934
two stepsons
son

	"The Hired Man On Horseback: My Story of Eugene Manlove Rhodes" biography & autobiography [1938] by May D. Rhodes Houghton Mifflin Co. hardcover [1938] out of print/scarce
	"Gene Rhodes, Cowboy" biography [1954] by Beth Day Romulo, Illustrated by Lorence F. Bjorklund Julian Messner Book Club hardcover [1955] out of print/used Julian Messner hardcover [1955] out of print/used Weekly Reader Book Club hardcover [1954] out of print/used Julian Messner Book Club hardcover [1954] out of print/used
	"A Bar-Cross Man: The Life and Personal Writings of Eugene Manlove Rhodes" [1956] by W.H. Hutchinson Univ Oklahoma Press 9x6 hardcover [1956] out of print/used

Readers of the Purple SageEugene Manlove Rhodes [1869-1934]

Readers of the Purple Sage
Eugene Manlove Rhodes
[1869-1934]