Charles Alden Seltzer

Charles Alden Seltzer (1875-1942) was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and got his feel for cattle country on an uncle's ranch in northern New Mexico. He worked as a newsboy, painter, carpenter, and later a building inspector for the city of Cleveland, writing at night; by his son's account he finished some two hundred stories before an editor finally accepted one. Over three decades he published about forty Western novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them in Argosy, Adventure, and Western Story Magazine, with more than a dozen adapted for the screen. He also served three terms as mayor of North Olmsted, Ohio, and was the father of Louis B. Seltzer, longtime editor of the Cleveland Press.