06/29/2023
We are fortunate enough to have information straight from the source of the author’s son, Lauran Paine, Jr., about his father, the legendary Lauran Paine…
“Lauran Paine was a prolific author of Western novels. He also wrote biographies, history, mysteries, espionage, and yes, even some romances (he didn’t much like them but, he said, ‘they sold.’) But mostly Westerns—that is what he lived, knew, and loved.
“Certainly, as prolific as he was, there has been much written about him, mostly in biographical format. But this is to introduce you to the soul of the man. He’s an interesting study: self-made, self-taught, fiercely independent, sometimes opinionated, could be a little ornery, did not like big cities, talented, had a strong work ethic, disliked phoniness, and lived rurally his entire adult life.
“He first began writing in bunkhouses while working on ranches. He was motivated by the inaccuracies he read in the Western stories of the time. He opined, ‘Their descriptions of the life left a lot to be desired. Most didn’t seem to know a lasso from barbed wire.’
“We were living on a 1500-acre cattle ranch when he first began getting regularly published, first with stories in magazines, and then on to paperback books. As the writing was taking more of his time, we sold the big ranch and moved to a smaller one of 80 acres. He basically wrote in the morning, starting at 5:00 a.m., until early afternoon, and then he ranched. We always had horses, cattle, and, yes, guns—that stuff was very much a part of who he was.
“Lauran Paine was listed in the 1981 Guinness Book of World Records as ‘the most prolific living novelist’ with 850—yeah, 850!—hard to fathom, I know, but it’s true. Writing is what he did. Every day! My bedroom was close to his den (he never called it an office) and every day I woke to the ‘peck-peck-peck-ding!’ of his manual typewriter. Little did I know, history was being made.
“In 1985, he was featured in People Magazine. It was an interesting feature, with a photo of tractor and books. It captured him as he was. At that time, they listed him as having written 880 books. [In the end, Paine wrote more than 1,000 novels.] He later told me, ‘Yeah, they wanted the books stacked by the tractor, so they hauled a bunch of them out. Then they took their pictures and left. I had to haul all the books back in.’
“In 2003, the critically-acclaimed movie, OPEN RANGE (with Kevin Costner, Robert Duval, and Annette Benning), adapted from his book, THE OPEN RANGE MEN, was released. My father knew the film rights had been purchased, but passed away before the movie was completed.
“I think he would have liked it: he was a stickler for how you saddled and rode a horse, handled a gun, that sort of thing, and they did a good job with all of that in the movie. [Spoiler alert:] In the original book, the character ‘Boss Spearman’ gets killed, but in the movie, the director liked the character so much, he let him live. As I watched the movie, Boss Spearman reminded me a lot of my dad: there was right and there was wrong, with very little middle ground, and you stood for what was right. Simple.
“And therein lies the beauty of Lauran Paine Books: rich and authentic descriptions of landscape and beast, clear and clever plots, and strong characters. Very enjoyable reading, in other words.”
—Lauran Paine, Jr.
2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the film’s release! OPEN RANGE by Lauran Paine is also available in audiobook, paperback, and ebook. (See each image for handy links.)
Lauran Paine’s literary works are represented by Golden West Inc. Literary Agency. For more information, contact us at [email protected] or [email protected].
