Ralph Compton (April 11, 1934 – September 16, 1998) was an American writer of western fiction. 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 Autumn of the Gun Festival Of Spies Clarion's Call Devil's Canyon Navarro Bullet Creek Guns Of The Canyonlands By The Horns Rio Largo Deadwood Gulch The Killing Season Texas Empire The Bloody Trail Blood Duel Shadow Of The Gun Ride The Hard Trail Bullet For A Bad Man Outlaw's Reckoning Stryker's Revenge The Burning Range The Stranger From Abilene The Ghost Of Apache Creek Down On The Gila River 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 Trail Drive books written by other authors under Compton's byline: The Dakota Trail by Robert Vaughan () Bozeman Trail by Robert Vaughan () The Alamosa Trail by Robert Vaughan () The Abilene Trail by Dusty Richards () Trail to Fort Smith by Dusty Richards () The Palo Duro Trail by Jory Sherman () 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 The Badlands Trail by Lyle Brandt The Saltwater Trail by Jackson Lowry Trail of the Gunfighter The Dawn of Fury () The Killing Season () Autumn of the Gun ()