William Cox (1901-1988) was a prolific writer for the pulp fiction magazine industry during the 1930s,
1940s and into the early 1950s. He later wrote for the television industry and continued to
publish in a wide variety of genres including sports, Westerns, and juvenile fiction. This
Collection consists of three main series: correspondence with business associates and other
contemporary writers (Red Barber, Ray Bradbury, John Ford, David Frost, Lillian Hellman,
Elmore Leonard and Allen Rivkin), manuscripts of his published works and screenplays,
and tear sheets from the pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s.
Repository:
University of Oregon Libraries
Special Collections & University Archives
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through
a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Biographical Note
Author William Robert Cox was born on April 14, 1901 in Peapack, New Jersey.
He was the eldest son of William and Marion Grace (Wenz) Cox. He grew up working for
his father delivering ice and coal in Jersey City and Newark. In high school he turned
to athletics and boxed, and played baseball, tennis and basketball. Later, he played football
in New Jersey and Pennsylvania leagues, earning five dollars per game. According to a 1988
article in the Los Angeles Times, he wrote 80 novels, 1,000 short stories, 100 television
scripts and screenplays.
His writing career began with feature writing for Sunday Call, a newspaper in Newark.
Later, at age 21, he edited La Tribuna, a weekly Italian-American paper. Cox's first fiction
story (on football) was published in 1934, in American Boy. He went on to write stories for
detective, Western and sport pulp magazines, such as: Argosy, Blue Book, Dime Sports,
Sports Novels, Detective Tales, Black Mask, and Dime Western.
He wrote under at least seven pseudonyms: Willard d'Arcy, Mike Frederic, John Parkhill,
Joel Reeve, Wayne Robbins, Roger G. Spellman and Jonas Ward. Sometime during the 1930s he
moved to Florida and wrote for the pulp magazine industry for at least 14 years.
When these magazines slumped in the late 1940s, Mr. Cox took up writing television plays
and some screenplays, including two motion picture films produced by Universal Studios in
the 1950s: "The Veils of Baghdad" and "Tanganyika." In 1948 he moved to Sherman Oaks,
California, in the San Fernando Valley to be closer to Hollywood. Mr. Cox lived there until
his death. He wrote television scripts for shows such as "G.E. Theater," "Bonanza," "Outer
Limits," "The Virginian" and many others. Mr. Cox began writing novels in 1954, most of which
were Western fiction and juvenile sports fiction.
Mr. Cox was a member of the Writers Guild of America and the Western Writers of America
(past committeeman, director, vice-president; and president, 1965-1966, 1971-1972). According
to his widow, Casey Collins Cox, he was writing his 81st novel, Cemetery Jones and the
Tombstone Wars on the day of his death, Sunday, August 7, 1988. He was 87. He was survived by his wife, Casey,
and his stepson, Douglas Campbell. He was the "beloved husband of Midge, Lamar, Lee, Pat and Casey,"
according to an article in the Armchair Detective (Winter, 1989).
Sources: Los Angeles Times, Friday, August 12,1988; New York Times, Friday, August 12, 1988;
Armchair Detective, winter 1989, Vol. 22, No. 1; and Gale Literary Data Bases: Contemporary
Authors Online, Gale, 2003.
Content Description
The William R. Cox Papers largely consist of correspondence, manuscripts, and pulp magazine
tear sheets, and photographs. This inventory represents the incorporation of nine addenda previously cataloged as
collection Ax 496, plus new material received in 1980.
The correspondence, arranged alphabetically, is largely of a business nature. One box (Box 5) is
devoted to Cox's dealing with his agent, the Lenniger Literary Agency. Business with publishers,
including Bantam Books, Dodd, Mead and Co., Doubleday, Fiction House, and Harper and Row, can also be
found. Much of the other correspondence is with members of the Western Writers of America. Many
writers, whose papers are also in Special Collections, corresponded with Mr. Cox. These include:
Hal Evarts, Brian Garfield, William Gault, Noel Loomis, Leo Margulies, and Malcolm Reiss
(Paul Reynolds, Inc.).
The manuscripts are of juvenile sports fiction, Western fiction, and crime stories. Those of books
and screenplays (mostly for television) appear together in one alphabetical listing by title
(Boxes 9-27). The various drafts and states of each manuscript have been denoted. The story length
manuscripts, according to previous sorting, are arranged two ways. One box (Box 28) contains an
alphabetical by title arrangement, while Box 29 has the stories arranged by subject. All of the
manuscripts are typed. Also included in the manuscript series are outlines of sports stories (29/7)
and one box of notebooks. The notebooks are arranged chronologically, 1914-1946, and contain notes
from Mr. Cox's high school days as well as the period he wrote for pulp magazines.
The pulp magazine tear sheets in the collection from the 1930s and 1940s are largely unorganized
within a subject breakdown. The mystery/crime and Western stories list the title and where published.
The sports stories are first divided by type of sport (baseball, basketball, boxing, etc.) and then
are grouped by magazine title. There are very few whole issues of magazines in the collection.
Use of the Collection
Restrictions on Access :
Collection is open to the public.
Collection must be used in Special Collections & University Archives Reading Room.
Restrictions on Use :
Property rights reside with Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries.
Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted to the
Manuscripts Librarian in Special Collections & University Archives. The
reader must also obtain permission of the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation :
[Identification of item], William R. Cox Papers, Coll. 032, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.
Administrative Information
Arrangement :
Collection is organized into the following series:
Series I. Biographical matter
Series II. Correspondence
Series III. Manuscripts
Subseries A. Books and screenplays
Subseries B. Story length (by title)
Subseries B2. Story length (by subject)
Series IV. Notebooks
Series V. Tear sheets
Subseries A. Mystery (crime)
Subseries B. Westerns
Subseries C1. Sports (baseball)
Subseries C2. Sports (basketball)
Subseries C3. Sports (boxing)
Subseries C4. Sports (football)
Subseries C5. Sports (tennis)
Subseries C6. Sports (track)
Subseries C7. Sports (other)
Series VI. Miscellaneous
Series VII. Photographs
Separated Materials :
Photographs in this collection are stored separately under call number PH094.
There are 23 books by Cox, catalogued separately in the UO Knight Library. They are
mostly Westerns, about half being from the Buchanan series. Some were published in French and Spanish.
Bibliography :
There are 23 free-standing volumes by Cox, catalogued separately in the UO Knight Library. They are
mostly Westerns and about half of them are from the Buchanan series. Some were published in French and Spanish.
Cox, William R.Annoncez la Couleur! (Hell to Pay) Serie Noire 493. Gallimard, 1959.
Bigger than Texas, London: Gold Lion Books, 1974.
Coeur de Lila (Death Comes Early) Serie Noire 778, Gallimard, 1963.
Death Comes Early, New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1961.
The Duke, New York: Signet Books, 1962.
Firecreek, From a screenplay by Calvin Clements, New York: Bantam Books, 1968.
Five were Chosen: A Basketball Story, New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1963.
Luke Short, Famous Gambler of the Old West: A Biography, London: W. Foulsham and Co., Ltd., 1961.
Mord I Casino, (Murder in Vegas) Dollar Serien, 1965.
Le Raid de la Pleine Lune, (Comanche Moon) Paris: Librarie des Champs-Elysees, 1966.
Trouble at Second Base, New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1966.
Ward, Jonas (pseud.) Buchanan Calls the Shots, Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Publications, Inc., 1975.
