Don Coldsmith never started out to write Western novels.
After a long and storied career as a doctor first as a medic in the Pacific during World War II, and then for several decades in Emporia where he delivered 3,000 babies Coldsmith decided to write a small story about his grandfather.
Don Coldsmith
It seems that his grandfather drove an ox-drawn wagon into Kansas as a homesteader when he was only 12 years old, and Coldsmith thought it was an overlooked chapter in the American West story.
"I grew up listening to his stories, and I wanted to tell his story, but I got off track," Coldsmith says during a phone interview from his Emporia home.
But it turned into a fortunate event, and Coldsmith has since gone on to publish more than 30 novels. His latest, "The Long Journey Home," is about an American Indian during the early part of the 20th Century, and his experience with everyone from Jim Thorpe to President Theodore Roosevelt. The character even spends some time in Lawrence, where he meets up with Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball.
"He's just trying to make it in a white man's world," Coldsmith says about the character. "It was a time when so much was going on worldwide, from World War I to the flu epidemic to Wild West shows."
Coldsmith's career took off during a meeting with some Doubleday editors to pitch his family history. He started regaling them with tales of the rich, Spanish-tinged history of early Kansas. He illustrated it by using a centuries-old Spanish riding bit that had been used over the years throughout the Midwest.
"There's a strong Spanish influence here that most people don't know about unless you're from around here," he says. "I told them 'the stories this bit could tell.' And the editor told me to write that story."
And so Coldsmith did.
Where: Available at area bookstores
Publisher: Forge Books
Price: $24.95
Doubleday published his first novel, "Trail of the Spanish Bit," more than two decades ago. It centered on the tale of an early Spanish traveler in Kansas. Coldsmith did not know it, but he was revitalizing the Western by taking a more inclusive angle that would tell the history of the Old West through the eyes of someone other than range riders, outlaws and sheriffs.
But even he didn't realize, at the time, that it was the start of a new career.
"I thought it was a one-shot thing. I didn't think it would be a 31-book series," Coldsmith says with a laugh.
"The Spanish Bit Saga" has grown to include tales of 15th Century conquistadors, 19th century native American Indians and even 10th century Vikings. His books have sold more than six million copies, been translated into several other languages and have been optioned by Hollywood producers for potential screenplay adaptations.
It still took Coldsmith awhile to catch on to this new style of Western writing.
"I fought it because I wanted to write about cowboys. But my editor said this was a trial balloon to see if we could break out of the generic mold of shootouts at the OK Corral. He said you can only have a shootout outside of a saloon so many times," Coldsmith recalls.
Western readers were ready for a change and heartily embraced Coldsmith's new slant on an old genre. He quickly became a recognizable hombre on the writing trail, with such writers as "Shane" wordsmith Jack Schaefer seeking him out.
"He told me he wrote a Western from an Indian's point of view after 'Shane' came out, and that it bombed. People were not ready for a change like that then. He knew I had written a book like that and he knew who I was. That was my ego-trip for the year, that Schaefer knew me," Coldsmith says with another laugh.
The trail seldom followed
After achieving success with his series, Coldsmith has been able to leverage his status to write on other issues. He writes smaller works, like the just-released "Raven Mocker" which is based on a true-life Cherokee myth and published through the Oklahoma University Press.
"With the exposure and name recognition I was able to write other historical novels, and I'm having fun," Coldsmith says.
Coldsmith divides his work into the longer saga stories, which run about 200,000 words and take a year to write, historical stories that are 100,000 words and six months to write, and then the shorter stories.
He averages at least 250,000 words annually, along with writing a weekly column. He also has his own bi-annual newsletter, "The Buckskin Journal."
Since he's covered so much historical ground, he's often called upon to speak about the Old West, and his novels get produced faster because he doesn't have to do as much research as he used to.
"You don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. I don't have as much research because I'm writing in the culture already," he says.
What makes his output all the more remarkable is that he writes everything out in longhand, before turning it over to an assistant to transcribe.
"My computer is in her basement," he admits. "I don't even know how to turn it on. That's her job."
A low-profile
Coldsmith is starting to win accolades for his work. He was recently voted into the "Writer's Hall of Fame of America" alongside notables that include Theodor (Dr. Seuss) Geisel. His highest honor arrived last year when the Western Writers of America voted him onto their top 24 list of Western Writers of the 20th Century. Coldsmith is ranked No. 17, alongside such writers as Louis L'Amour, Willa Cather, Zane Grey and Jack London.
"It really astonished me. It's a great honor that I never expected to receive," he says.
Coldsmith isn't letting any of this go to his head. He's a pretty accessible fellow, and when not writing adventures on legal paper, he spends his time working a small ranching operation.
"That's my exercise. I see people jogging by my house, but they never look like they're having any fun," he says. "So I work my cattle for exercise."
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