Description
Research files from David Lavender, used in writing
Fort Laramie and the Changing Frontier (Official National Park Handbook, 1983). Mainly photocopies and typed notes of correspondence, diaries, reports and other
documents from the latter 19th century.
Background
David Lavender, teacher, cowboy, and historian of the West, was born in Telluride, Colorado on Feb. 4, 1910. He attending
Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, graduated from Princeton University in 1931, and briefly attended Stanford Law School.
His grandfather was chief justice of Colorado and his stepfather ranched and ran a stagecoach line. After his stepfather died
during the Depression, he took over the family ranch and, when it failed, worked in a gold mine for a while. He moved to Denver,
became a copywriter for an advertising agency, and later moved to California, where he became a screenwriter, providing plots
for Westerns, and writing stories for Western pulp magazines, juvenile publications such as Boys' Life, and the Saturday Evening Post.
Restrictions
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.