Tuttle, W. C.

← All authors

W. C. Tuttle (November 11, 1883 – June 6, 1969) was an American writer born in Glendive, Montana, who sold more than 1,000 magazine stories and dozens of novels, almost all of which were westerns.

Tuttle wrote mainly for pulp magazines, with his primary market being Adventure magazine, where he was voted the most popular writer in a 1930 poll of readers. He also contributed to publications such as Argosy, Short Stories, Street & Smith's Western Story Magazine, Field & Stream, and Exciting Western.

His best-known character was Hashknife Hartley, who along with his friend Sleepy Stevens, served as unofficial detectives solving crimes on the ranches where they worked as cowboys. Tuttle often combined the western story with the detective story, creating a unique hybrid genre.

Beyond writing, Tuttle worked as a screenwriter dating back to the silent film era, writing screenplays for 52 films between 1915 and 1945. A semi-professional baseball player in his youth, he served as President of the Pacific Coast Baseball League from 1935 to 1943. He died on June 6, 1969, in Los Angeles County, California.

Books (10)

Cover of All Wool

All Wool

Tuttle, W. C. (author)
The Ridgway Company (in Adventure Magazine) • October, 1916
Keywords: Western short story, classic pulp adventure, range war, cowboy fiction, sheep and cattle conflict, W. C. Tuttle, frontier humor, American West, cowpuncher tale, vintage Adventure magazine

Hired as unlikely shepherds in an unfamiliar stretch of range country, cowpunchers Zeb Whitney and Ricky Saunders quickly learn that guarding three thousand sheep for top wages comes with reasons their easygoing boss failed to mention. A stray bullet, a vanished herder, and a sudden blast in the night convince them they've blundered into the middle of a simmering range war between cattlemen and sheep owners. Outgunned, out-supplied, and subsisting on half-cooked mutton, the two saddle-tramps answer each new calamity with wisecracks, card games, and a stubborn refusal to be run off. A rollicking frontier yarn of grit, gallows humor, and partnership tested by dust, dynamite, and the worst cooking west of the Rockies.

Cover of For the Love of Annibel

For the Love of Annibel

Tuttle, W. C. (author)
The Ridgway Co. (in Adventure Magazine) • November 1916
Keywords: Western short story, Western humor, frontier comedy, Old West, mining town Montana, amateur theater, cowboy story, early American West, slapstick Western, 1910s frontier

When a theatrical producer arrives in the rough-and-tumble mining town of Piperock, Montana, she attempts to stage an ambitious play using local cowboys, prospectors, and townsfolk as her amateur cast. Narrator Ike Harper reluctantly watches as his partner Magpie Simpkins and the rest of the colorful community throw themselves into "For the Love of Annibel," a melodrama that promises culture and refinement to the frontier. But between rivalries over leading roles, a dubious choice of livestock, and the volatile personalities of the Piperock residents, the production quickly spirals toward unforgettable disaster.

Cover of Sixteen to One on Friday

Sixteen to One on Friday

Tuttle, W. C. (author)
The Ridgway Company (in Adventure Magazine) • May 1917
Keywords: cowboy adventure story, classic Western short story, humorous Western fiction, Montana frontier fiction, Old West comedy, ranch life in Montana, early 20th century Western, vintage American Western, comic frontier misadventure, Western dialect fiction

Set against the rough-edged ranges and backroads of early twentieth-century Montana, this spirited Western follows two cowboys whose simple errand turns into a riot of misadventure. W. C. Tuttle blends frontier humor, political color, mistaken suspicion, and fast-moving action in a tale rich with dialect and comic timing. By turns sly, chaotic, and vividly atmospheric, this classic short story captures the exuberant unpredictability of life in a cattle-country town called Paradise.

Cover of Powder Law

Powder Law

Tuttle, W. C. (author)
The Ridgway Company (in Adventure Magazine) • January 20, 1922
Keywords: classic western fiction, frontier justice, cowboy adventure, Montana badlands novel, vigilante western, 1880s American West, outlaw and lawman story, gunfighter fiction, range war drama, historical western ebook

In the brutal badlands of 1880 Montana, two drifting outsiders ride into a frontier where law has become a weapon and power belongs to the boldest hand. As vigilante violence, cattle-range tyranny, and a restless boomtown close in around them, Blaze Carlin and Frenchy Ditteau find themselves drawn into a struggle over justice, loyalty, and survival. Rich with dust, danger, and moral reckoning, this classic Western captures a raw borderland where every choice carries the weight of consequence.

Cover of The Curse of the Painted Cliffs

The Curse of the Painted Cliffs

Tuttle, W. C. (author)
Doubleday, Page & Co. (in Short Stories Magazine) • January 25, 1923
Keywords: Mojave Desert Western fiction, Calico ghost town historical Western, silver mining town frontier drama, 1880s American West outlaw intrigue, gambler saloon poker gunfighter, female protagonist Western suspense, desert noir frontier crime, mine politics corruption power, frontier morality honor and violence, Western literary historical adventure

In the painted cliffs of Calico, a lawless Mojave mining town where silver dust and gun smoke mingle, Luck Sleed inherits an empire she never wanted. Haunted by a vanished gambling debt and drawn nightly to the desert’s vast silence, she searches for something beyond the canyon’s rough music and rougher men. As new power gathers behind the green cloth and the mines begin to falter, Calico tightens around her like a trap. A stark, atmospheric Western of ambition, honor, and survival at the edge of civilization.

Cover of Rustler's Roost

Rustler's Roost

Tuttle, W. C. (author)
The Ridgway Company (in Adventure Magazine) • April 30, 1924
Keywords: early 20th century Western, western prison escape, wrongful conviction fiction, cattle country romance, mistaken identity western, rancher sheepman feud, frontier justice story, cowboy redemption tale, train wreck survival, old west adventure

When Tex Rowland—wrongly convicted horse thief—escapes from Elk Lodge penitentiary with the help of a dying trusty, a train wreck grants him an unexpected second chance: a new face and a new identity. As 'William H. Smith,' he returns to the cattle country that framed him, where old feuds simmer between ranchers and sheepmen, and the girl he left behind now works for the very man who sent him to prison. In a world where loyalty runs deeper than the law, Tex must decide whether to reclaim his past or forge a future no one will recognize.

Cover of Fate of The Wolf

Fate of The Wolf

Tuttle, W. C. (author)
Doubleday, Page & Co. (in Short Stories Magazine) • June 25, 1925
Keywords: classic Western adventure, Western romance, Mexican borderland fiction, revenge Western tale, Old West gunfighter, historical rancho romance, 1920s pulp Western, Southwest frontier fiction, bandit outlaw story, vintage Western mystery

In the lawless Mexican borderland, the bandit known as El Lobo has transformed from folk hero to merciless killer, and Don Roberto Aliso's fortified rancho stands as his next target. When the laughing stranger Destino rides into Santa Clemente claiming to hunt The Wolf, the desperate rancher hires him as a guard—unaware that this mysterious gunfighter harbors secrets that could doom or save them all. As threats mount and betrayal festers within the walls, Destino must choose between vengeance and an unexpected love that awakens in the shadow of danger. From the author of adventure classics comes a tale of honor, deception, and deadly reckoning in the Old West.

Cover of Fire Brands

Fire Brands

Tuttle, W. C. (author)
Doubleday, Page & Co. in Short Stories magazine • 1925
Keywords: classic western fiction, cowboy humor, small town saloon, frontier justice, orphan boy story, cowpuncher protagonists, western adventure, ranch sale plot, dog companion, old west drama

A classic Western tale of two wandering cowpunchers who stumble into trouble in the small cow town of Oreana. Sad Sontag and Swede Harrigan arrive to bid on a ranch sale, but when they defend a young orphan named Speck from a bullying rancher, they find themselves drawn into something more complicated than a simple auction. As they wait for the Bar S Ranch sale—a property lost to drink and debt—the two partners begin to sense something suspicious about the circumstances. With its quick-draw action, colorful characters, and the code of the Old West, this adventure promises gunplay, mystery, and the kind of justice that comes from standing up for what's right.

Cover of The Lovable Liar

The Lovable Liar

Tuttle, W. C. (author)
The Ridgway Corporation (in Adventure Magazine) • January 20, 1925
Keywords: classic western fiction, cowboy mystery, frontier crime novel, ranch country suspense, historical western adventure, Old West detectives, cattle rustling fiction, small town western, gunslinger mystery, W C Tuttle western

In a rough cattle town at the edge of the frontier, two drifting cowboys arrive just as suspicion, old grudges, and a string of brazen crimes begin to tighten their grip on the range. As loyalties blur and danger gathers around ranchers, lawmen, and outcasts alike, the men find themselves drawn into a restless country where wit can be as vital as a gun. Wry, atmospheric, and sharply observed, this Western blends frontier mystery with dry humor and hard-riding adventure.

Cover of Loot of the Lazy A

Loot of the Lazy A

Tuttle, W. C. (author)
Doubleday, Page & Co. (in Short Stories Magazine) • August 10, 1926
Keywords: historical western mystery, San Francisco Chinatown noir, Prohibition-era crime fiction, identity swap suspense, foggy San Francisco thriller, Southwest cattle town western, ranch feud frontier drama, cowboy stranger romance, bohemian chop-house underworld, classic pulp adventure

On a rain-soaked night in fogbound San Francisco, a penniless young woman on the edge of Chinatown is pulled back from despair by a desert-hardened stranger with a battered suitcase and a stubborn sense of decency. A sudden collision with the city’s shadow economy sends them fleeing into the fog with an identity that isn’t hers—and a road that leads far from the bay. From bohemian chop-houses to an isolated Southwest cattle town where old grudges never quite die, survival will demand nerve, reinvention, and a careful reading of fate. Gritty, atmospheric, and charged with frontier tension, this tale follows two unlikely allies as they step into a world where every name carries a price.