Frank Bonham (February 25, 1914 – December 16, 1988) was an author of
Westerns
The Western is a genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier (commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West") between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated wit ...
and
young adult novels
Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as family dysfunction, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. It is characterized by simpler world build ...
. Bonham wrote 48 novels, as well as TV scripts.
Bonham was born in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. He was a
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
graduate.
Bonham was known for his works for
young adult
In medicine and the social sciences, a young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence, sometimes with some overlap. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages ...
s written in the 1960s, with tough, realistic urban settings, including ''
The Nitty Gritty'' and ''
Durango Street'', as well as for his westerns. Several of his works have been published posthumously, many of which were drawn from his
pulp magazine
Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 until around 1955. The term "pulp" derives from the Pulp (paper), wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed, due to their ...
stories, originally published between 1941 and 1952. ''Durango Street'' was an
ALA Notable Book
American Library Association Notable lists are announced each year in January by various divisions within the American Library Association (ALA). There are six lists which are part of the larger ALA awards structure.
* ''ALA Notable Books for Adu ...
.
Bonham died on his ranch in Arizona.
Novels
*''Lost Stage Valley'' (1948)
*''Snaketrack'' (1951)
*''Blood on the Land'' (1952)
*''Night Raid'' (1954)
*''The Feud at Spanish Ford'' (1954)
*''Rawhide Guns'' (1955)
*''Border Guns'' (1956)
*''Defiance Mountain'' (1956)
*''Hardrock'' (1958)
*''Tough Country'' (1958)
*''Last Stage West'' (1959)
*''The Outcast of Crooked River'' (1959)
*''Sound of Gunfire'' (1959)
*''Burma Rifles: A story of Merrill's Marauders'' (1960)
*''One for Sleep'' (1960)
*''The Skin Game'' (1961)
*''The Wild Breed'' (1962)
*''War Beneath the Sea'' (1962)
*''Trago'' (1962)
*''By Her Own Hand'' (1963)
*''Deepwater Challenge'' (1963)
*''Honor Bound'' (1963)
*''The Loud, Resounding Sea'' (1963)
*''Cast a Long Shadow'' (1964)
*''Logan's Choice'' (1964)
*''Speedway Contender'' (1964)
*''Durango Street'' (1965)
*''Mystery in Little Tokyo'' (1966)
*''Mystery of the Red Tide'' (1966)
*''The Ghost Front'' (1968)
*''Mystery of the Fat Cat'' (1968)
*''Nitty Gritty'' (1968)
*''The Vagabundos'' (1969)
*''Viva Chicano'' (1970)
*''Chief'' (1971)
*''Cool Cat'' (1972)
*''The Friends of the Loony Lake Monster'' (1972)
*''A Dream of Ghosts'' (1973)
*''Golden Bees of Tulami'' (1974)
*''The Missing Persons League'' (1976)
*''Hey, Big Spender'' (1976)
*''Bold Passage'' (1977)
*''Rascals from Haskell's Gym'' (1977)
*''Devilhorn'' (1978)
*''The Forever Formula'' (1979)
*''Break for the Border'' (1980)
*''Fort Hogan'' (1980)
*''Gimme an H, Gimme an E, Gimme an L, Gimme A P'' (1980)
*''Premonitions'' (1984)
*''The Eye of the Hunter'' (1989)
*''Burn Him Out'' (1998)
*''Furnace Flat'' (2000)
Short story collections
*''The Cañon of Maverick Brands: Western Stories'' (2001)
*''Stage Trails West: Western Stories'' (2002)
*''The Last Mustang: Western Stories'' (2003)
*''Outcasts of Rebel Creek: A Western Quartet'' (2004)
*''Dakota Man: Western Stories'' (2007)
*''Devil's Graze: Western Stories'' (2008)
*''The Dark Border: A Western Quartet'' (2009)
References
External links
Bibliography at Fantastic Fiction
1988 deaths
1914 births
American writers of young adult literature
American children's writers
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
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