The Colorado Authors League Begins
The following article by Caroline Bancroft appeared in the Denver Post on Sunday morning, May 3, 1931. It announces the creation of the Colorado Authors League and lists its first officers and full founding membership.
NEWLY FORMED AUTHORS LEAGUE OF COLORADO ELECTS OFFICERS
Arthur H. Carhart Is President-State Rapidly Is Becoming Center for Nationally Famous Writers-New Copyright Law Sought
(By Caroline Bancroft)
In these days when all labor is organized, the movement seems to be spreading to the professions and from there to the artists. The latest move in this direction is the decision of the fiction and article writers to band together under the title Authors League of Colorado.
Several preliminary meetings were held for discussions of this project in the early winter. A constitution and by-laws were finally determined upon and now comes the announcement of the membership, officers and board of directors.
Arthur H. Carhart, author of “The Last Stand of the Pack” and “The Ordeal of Brad Ogden” is president; Lenora Weber, author of “The Gypsy Bridle,” etc., first vice president; William M. John, author of “Seven Women,” second vice president, and David Raffelock is secretary and treasurer.
COLORADO HAS 150 AUTHORS The board of directors includes Blanche Young McNeal, Hal Davenport, C. E. Scoggins (“The House of Darkness,” etc.), Willard E. Hawkins (“The Cowled Menace”), William MacLeod Raine (“The Fighting Tenderfoot,” etc.), and Thomas Hornsby Ferril (a book of poetry, “High Passage”).
“The development of a center of authorship in Colorado,” Mr. Carhart, the president of the new league, said, when interviewed about the organization, “has been so swift, so amazing, that few people have realized that we have such a center here.“
A checkup will show that eight years ago there were only a few working in the field. Today there are perhaps 150 Colorado authors who appear in the columns of national publications.”
STRICT ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS
“The Colorado Authors’ league, altho still in the early stages of being welded into a working unit, has been formed to secure for authors advantages that can be attained by cooperation and not by the individual working alone.
“Entrance requirements into the league are strict. Each member must be a professonal writer who has attained national recognition. After our membership is complete, we aim to devise all sorts of betterment toward the practical needs of the league-Colorado publicity, passage of a new copyright law, etc.
“One activity we already have under way is the weekly authors’ program. Informal interviews with our Colorado authors will be presented at this period. One definite objective we have in mind is to have our own people acquainted with our own authors and so learn to look for and demand their work in magazines they read,
HERE ARE LEAGUE MEMBERS
“We want our Rocky Mountain folk to know our Rocky Mountain authors.”
The complete membership of the league at the present date includes Harry Adler, Helen Anderson, John T. Bartlett, Arthur H. Carhart, Perry J. Carter, Marian Castle, Hal Davenport, Thomas H. Ferril, Ida Gleason, Nelly M. Graf, Olga Gunkle, Anne Halladay (“Cuddle Bear of Piney Forest”), Edwin Hunt Hoover (“Buff”), Ray Humphries, William M. John, Hattie Horner Louthan (“The Short Story Craftsman”), Earl McCain, Blanche Young McNeal, Florence Means, Forbes Parkhill, Stephen Payne, Tyline Perry (“The Owner Lies Dead”), Marguerite Radcliffe, David Raffelock, William MacLeod Raine, Bess Waynick Ruble, Kate Russell, C. E. Scoggins, Mrs. Tracy Spitler, Daisy Stephenson, C. M. Sublette (“The Golden Chimney”), Ann Spence Warner (“Sidesaddle Ranch”), Lenora Mattingly Weber, Clara Welch, Herb White and Loduska Yont.-Robert Root, CAL Historian, December 12, 2007