Ridgway of Montana

At this time he began to publish short stories eventually becoming a full-time free-lance fiction writer and finally finding his literary home in the novel. His earliest novels were romantic histories taking place in the English countryside. However after spending some time with the Arizona Rangers Raine shifted his literary focus and began to utilize the American West as a setting. The publication of Wyoming in 1908 marks the beginning of his prolific career during which time he averaged nearly two western novels a year until his death in 1954. In 1920 he was awarded an M.L. degree from the University of Colorado where he had established that schools first journalism course. During the First World War 500000 copies of one of his books were sent to British soldiers in the trenches. Twenty of his novels have been filmed. Though he was prolific he was a slow careful conscientious worker intent on accurate detail and considered himself a craftsman rather than an artist. In 1905 Raine married Jennie P. Langley who died in 1922. In 1924 he married Florence A. Hollingsworth; they had a daughter. Though he traveled a good deal Denver was considered his home. In 1928 he ghost wrote with Billy Breakenridge the book Helldorado: Bringing Law to the Mesquite. Breakenridge had been a deputy sheriff under Johnny Behan in Tombstone Arizona Territory during the period of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Breakenridge had pressed Wyatt for details about his time in Tombstone to add to the book. It was published the year before Wyatt died. and it depicted Wyatt as a thief pimp crooked gambler and murderer. The book stated that the Earps and Doc Holliday aggressively mistreated the guiltless cowboys until they were forced into a fatal confrontation. His description of the 1881 O.K. Corral gun fight stated that the Clanton and McLaury brothers were merely cowboys who had been unarmed and surrendered but the Earp brothers had shot them in cold blood. Wyatt and Josie protested that the books contents was biased and more fiction than fact. Earp complained about the book until his death in January 1929 and his wife continued in the same vein afterward.