Luke Short is the pen name of Frederick Dilley Glidden (1908-1975), the bestselling, award-winning author of over fifty classic western novels and hundreds of short stories. Renowned for their action-packed story lines, multidimensional characters, and vibrant dialogue, Glidden's novels sold over thirty million copies. Ten of his novels, including Blood on the Moon, Coroner Creek, and Ramrod, were adapted for the screen. Glidden was the winner of a special Western Heritage Trustees Award and the Levi Strauss Golden Saddleman Award from the Western Writers of America.

Born in Kewanee, Illinois, Glidden graduated in 1930 from the University of Missouri where he studied journalism. After working for several newspapers, he became a trapper in Canada and, later, an archaeologist's assistant in New Mexico. His first story, "Six-Gun Lawyer," was published in Cowboy Stories magazine in 1935 under the name F. D. Glidden. At the suggestion of his publisher, he used the pseudonym Luke Short, not realizing it was the name of a real gunman and gambler who was a friend of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. In addition to his prolific writing career, Glidden worked for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. He moved to Aspen, Colorado, in 1946, and became an active member of the Aspen Town Council, where he initiated the zoning laws that helped preserve the town.

A hard-riding adventurer returns home to settle down-and stirs up a heap of trouble-in this action-packed western from a master of the genre.
After ten years of hard fighting and harder living, Will Danning is coming home to Yellow Jacket. His arrival is anything but celebrated, however-the last time he cast a shadow here, he wasn't exactly walking the straight and narrow.

Danning has returned to buy the Pitchfork Ranch, where he used to work cattle that weren't always legally his. For his neighbors, that's cause for concern; Angus Case still remembers when his herds were ravaged. What's more, Danning's friends can't understand why he'd want such a dried-up parcel of land. And Pres Milo, Case's chief ramrod and enforcer, wants the land for himself-and will do anything to get it.

If Danning wants to keep what's his, he'll have to fight. And in a frontier town like Yellow Jacket, fighting often means dying . . .

A legend of western fiction, Luke Short blazed the trail for writers such as Louis L'Amour and Elmore Leonard. Raw Land is one of his grittiest and most authentic tales of frontier adventure.