Fiddlefoot
A hard-charging tale of oppression and revenge by an award-winning author who helped define the western genre.
Frank Chess didn’t care for much in this world. Especially himself. So taking a job for local big shot Rhino Hulst was an easy choice. Each day drifted into the next: running Rhino’s crooked errands, blowing his meager pay in the nearest poker game, drinking it down in the closest saloon, and handing it over to the next soiled dove. All because Rhino killed a man in cold blood, pinned it on Frank, and now holds the hangman’s rope over him.
And who would give a damn? Frank came into town a drifter—a fiddlefoot, they called him—worth nothing to no one. He didn’t matter.
But none of the townspeople know Frank. Where he came from. What he’s done. And when he finally remembers what it’s like to care about something, they have no idea how much hell he’s about to bring down on them all.
Along with legendary authors like Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour, Luke Short helped transform the stories of the American West from dime-store pulp into a respected and immensely popular literary genre. Originally serialized in the Saturday Evening Post, Fiddlefoot combines Short’s plainspoken style with the hard-edged authenticity that marks his novels as true classics of western adventure.
Luke Short
Luke Short is the pen name of Frederick Dilley Glidden (1908–1975), the bestselling, award-winning author of over fifty classic western novels and hundreds of short stories. Renowned for their action-packed story lines, multidimensional characters, and vibrant dialogue, Glidden’s novels sold over thirty million copies. Ten of his novels, including Blood on the Moon, Coroner Creek, and Ramrod, were adapted for the screen. Glidden was the winner of a special Western Heritage Trustees Award and the Levi Strauss Golden Saddleman Award from the Western Writers of America.
Born in Kewanee, Illinois, Glidden graduated in 1930 from the University of Missouri where he studied journalism. After working for several newspapers, he became a trapper in Canada and, later, an archaeologist’s assistant in New Mexico. His first story, “Six-Gun Lawyer,” was published in Cowboy Stories magazine in 1935 under the name F. D. Glidden. At the suggestion of his publisher, he used the pseudonym Luke Short, not realizing it was the name of a real gunman and gambler who was a friend of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. In addition to his prolific writing career, Glidden worked for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. He moved to Aspen, Colorado, in 1946, and became an active member of the Aspen Town Council, where he initiated the zoning laws that helped preserve the town.
