Ralph Compton

Ralph Compton (1934–1998) was an American writer of western fiction who wrote the Sundown Rider and Border Empire series and the Trail Drive books. His debut, The Goodnight Trail, was a finalist for the Western Writers of America Medicine Pipe Bearer Award for Best Debut Novel. A native of St. Clair County, Alabama, he worked as a musician, radio announcer, songwriter and newspaper columnist before turning to fiction, and in his last decade he wrote more than two dozen novels. He died in Nashville, Tennessee, at 64.