A native of St. Clair County, Alabama, Compton stood six-foot-eight without his boots. He worked as a musician, a radio announcer, a songwriter, and a newspaper columnist. Mr. Compton began his writing career with a notable work, The Goodnight Trail, which was chosen as a finalist for the Western Writers of America "Medicine Pipe Bearer Award" bestowed upon the "Best Debut Novel". He was also the author of the Sundown Rider series and the Border Empire series. In the last decade of his life, he authored more than two dozen novels, some of which made it onto the USA Today bestseller list for fiction.
Ralph Compton died in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 64. Since his death, Signet Books has continued the author's legacy, releasing new novels, written by authors such as Joseph A. West and David L. Robbins, under Compton's byline.
Novels
Festival Of Spies
Clarion's Call
Showdown at Two-Bit Creek (ISBN 0-451-20854-4)
Doomsday Rider (ISBN 0-451-21080-8)
Vengeance Rider
Navarro
Bullet Creek
For The Brand
Guns Of The Canyonlands
By The Horns
Rio Largo
Deadwood Gulch
Texas Empire
A Wolf In The Fold
Bluff City
The Bloody Trail
West Of The Law
Blood Duel
The Convict trail
Shadow Of The Gun
Death Of A Bad Man
Ride The Hard Trail
Blood On The Gallows
Bullet For A Bad Man
Outlaw's Reckoning
The Man From Nowhere
Fatal Justice (ISBN 0-451-22859-6)
Stryker's Revenge
North To The Salt Fork
Rusted Tin
The Burning Range
The Stranger From Abilene
The Ghost Of Apache Creek
Slaughter Canyon
Dead Man's Ranch
One Man's Fire
Tucker's Reckoning
Down On The Gila River
Brimstone Trail
Straight Shooter
Hard Ride To Wichita
The Hunted
Double-Cross Ranch
The Trail Drive Series
The Goodnight Trail
The Western Trail
The Chisholm Trail
The California Trail
The Shawnee Trail
The Virginia City Trail
The Dodge City Trail
The Oregon Trail
The Santa Fe Trail
The Old Spanish Trail
The Green River Trail
The Deadwood Trail
The Bandera Trail
Written by other authors under Compton's byline:
The Dakota Trail by Robert Vaughan (ISBN 0-451-20417-4)
Bozeman Trail by Robert Vaughan (ISBN 0-451-20690-8)
The Alamosa Trail by Robert Vaughan (ISBN 0-451-20582-0)
The Abilene Trail by Dusty Richards (ISBN 978-0-451-21043-2)
Trail to Fort Smith by Dusty Richards (ISBN 0-451-21123-5)
The Palo Duro Trail by Jory Sherman (ISBN 0-451-21369-6)
The Ogallala Trail by Dusty Richards
The Ellsworth Trail by Jory Sherman
The Tenderfoot Trail by Joseph A West
Trail To Cottonwood Falls by Dusty Richards
The Amarillo Trail by Jory Sherman
Trail of the Gunfighter
The Dawn of Fury (ISBN 0-451-18631-1)
The Killing Season (ISBN 0-451-18787-3)
Autumn of the Gun (ISBN 0-451-19045-9)
Border Empire
The Border Empire (ISBN 0-451-19209-5)
Sixguns and Double Eagles (ISBN 0-451-19331-8)
Train To Durango (ISBN 0-451-19237-0)
Sundown Riders
North to the Bitterroot
Across the Rio Colorado
The Winchester Run
Devil's Canyon (ISBN 0-451-19519-1)
Whiskey River (ISBN 0-451-19332-6)
The Skeleton Lode (ISBN 0-451-19762-3)
Demon's Pass by Robert Vaughan (ISBN 0-451-19763-1)
Runaway Stage
Do Or Die
Nowhere, Texas (ISBN 0-451-21132-4)
Bucked Out In Dodge
West of Pecos
Danny Duggin Series
Death Rides A Chestnut Mare (ISBN 0-451-19761-5)
The Shadow of a Noose
Death Along the Cimmaron (ISBN 0-451-20769-6)
Riders of Judgment by Ralph W. Cotton (ISBN 0-451-20214-7)
