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ri, but Allen found himself overtaken by wanderlust. N A RECENT EPISODE of the Six-Gun Justice Podcast, I talked briefly about Western Leaving the university after less than a year, he set out wordslinger Will Henry and his short story to follow his compulsion and explore the west—becoming a self-described “vagrant.” collection I, Tom Horn, which I was reading and enTravelling wherever the road took him, Allen joying. The anthology was my first exposure to Will supported himself with a variety of odd jobs. He was Henry’s work, but I was so impressed by his storytella shop clerk on an Indian reservation, a gold miner, ing, I began to learn more about him and to trackdown several of his full-length novels. I have now read over a half dozen of his Westerns, as well two other collections of his short stories, and I remain stunningly impressed. Will Henry and Clay Fisher are both pseudonyms used by Henry Wilson “Heck” Allen on the more than fifty Westerns he wrote between 1952 and 1978. In general, the moniker Clay Fisher was used to identify Allen’s shorter, pulpier Westerns. His books as Will Henry are more substantial—fundamentally and structurally deeper from both an historical and psychological perspective. However, I will circle back to this concept later in the column. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1912, Allen never knew a time when he didn’t want to be a writer. At age twelve, he started sending short stories to Liberty and Collier’s—two of the top magazine markets of the day—which showed both his youthful idealism and his lofty aspirations. His father encouraged HENRY WILSON “HECK” ALLEN—AKA WILL HENRY AND CLAY FISHER— Allen to major in journalism AUTHORED OVER FIFTY WESTERN NOVELS DURING HIS CAREER, at the University of MissouINCLUDING THE CLASSIC NO SURVIVORS.
