Augustus deHerries Smith (1881-1945) was a writer of Mountie adventure stories, textbooks, a novel and many humorous columns in the Edmonton Bulletin. Here his life and writing career is described in all its eccentric glory.
(This information is from a family history booklet accessed at
https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/5805692 a couple years ago, with some
additional content added by Tom Monto.)
AUGUSTUS WILLIAM DE HERRIES SMITH
Gus was the first of two children born to Dr. Nicholas Skottowe Smith and Jane Greene Smyth at Glenbrook, Co. Cork, Ireland on 16 March 1881. He and his brother John Crosbie Skottowe Smith were raised at Rathcoursey House and Passage West but were sent to boarding school in England for their education from a very early school age. This was a common practice in the United Kingdom and the fact that they were Protestants living in a solidly Catholic Southern Ireland likely had considerable bearing on the matter. He was often heard to say later in his life that among his earliest memories was of himself and Johnnie standing at the ship’s rail waving goodbye to his mother who stood on a point of land close to where the steamer would pass.
He seldom mentioned his father who was a doctor, and was at some time in his life a ship’s doctor and away at sea a good deal of the time. His father apparently had an alcohol problem and his parents were eventually separated, with his mother living in Dublin and his father in London.
Little is known about his boyhood but he and Johnnie greatly enjoyed roaming through the woods and fields at Rathcoursey and always hated to return to the dreaded, regimented school life in England. He often talked about Passage West and sailing in the inlet that flows from Cork to the sea.
Gus wrote frequently to his mother in Ireland and her letters arrived regularly as well. One of his bitter regrets in life was that he was only able to return home once to see his mother when he was serving overseas in the Canadian army. She made one trip to Canada after Lily was born in 1910.
Johnnie had left home when he was sixteen and had gone to Australia where he worked in the elite Melbourne Club as a ‘boots assistant’. Sixteen seems a rather tender age, by today’s standards, to leave home permanently, but it was very common for young Irishmen of the 19th Century to emigrate because of the depressed economic conditions in the country. However, it is also possible that problems within the family further influenced his decision to leave. In January of 1902, Johnnie drowned in a boating accident on the Yarra River and Gus left his job as a shop clerk in Cork to travel to Australia and take care of Johnnie’s affairs.
During his stay in Australia he worked primarily on cattle and sheep stations and on a dairy farm at Paramatta (now a suburb of Sydney) where he acquired a lifelong dislike for cows that contributed to a colorful vocabulary. He was always interested in horses and was a good rider.
Gus moved to Canada via the South Pacific islands, Hawaii, and Vancouver in 1903, eventually becoming one of the first settlers in the Barrhead area of Alberta. He always said that he came to Canada so he could skate on the frozen lakes in the winter. It is believed his homestead was the site of the Paddle River Post Office and later the farm of Alex Birnie. The road that passed his homestead was previously the trail used by gold-seekers on their way overland during the Klondike gold rush that started in 1898.
At Barrhead he met and married Maria Ann Birnie, daughter of Peter and Jane Birnie, on April 21, 1908.
As well as carving a farm out of the wilderness, he also hauled supplies by horse and ox teams from Edmonton to Barrhead. It was about a three day trip each way over rudimentary roads, including corduroy trails through the muskeg. Many times he was heard to talk about the big hill at St. Albert with a river crossing at the bottom, an unwelcome feature of each trip. Indicative of the hardships of the trail was borne throughout his life by Uncle Tom (Maria’s brother) who on one of those winter trips froze, and subsequently lost, several fingers.
Throughout his life Gus retained his love of horses and had many of them on his homestead... but only one cow, which he usually refused to milk. His daughter, Lily, recalled a large barn on the farm surrounded by pole corrals. He must have seen some potential in agriculture and purchased and brought the first steam threshing machine into the district. (He held a steam engineer’s certificate.) He then ventured into the sawmill business and was kept very busy with a crew of several men logging and sawing bridge and construction timbers. Much of the lumber probably went into the first homes in the area. Together with other homesteaders, he also worked at building roads and bridges in the district. Lily recalled great piles of lumber in the farmyard when she was a young girl. He was also proud of the fastest, most durable saddle horse for miles around.
He was operating his mill when World War I broke out in 1914. He enlisted in the 202nd Canadian Infantry Battalion in 1915 and trained at Camp Sarcee, but was subsequently transferred to the Canadian Forestry Corps, probably because of his background in that industry. He went to France in early 1916 and served there until 1918 when the war ended. The Forestry Corps was responsible for logging and milling trench building and bridge material and transporting it to the front lines. It was during this time that he had his only opportunity to visit his mother in Ireland.
When he went off to war, he left his young wife with four small children to keep the mill and farm going. It could be assumed that she got help from her family who lived nearby and possibly others. Sometime before he returned the mill burned down.
The four children at that time were Lily, Norah, Cedric and Ackie. Their first child, Nicholas, died as an infant. Lily and Norah started school while living on the homestead, but Cedric and Ackie did not start until the family moved to Edmonton, Ron remembered reading a poem or short article about Lily, the first to start school, hiking off through the bush, her red toque bobbing through the willows on her way to her first days in Grade One at Leighton School.
Shortly after Gus and Maria were married they built a two-story log house on the homestead to replace his original bachelor’s shack. Grandpa Birnie, as well as being a sea captain, was a competent carpenter and supervised construction.
Lily was the only member of the family who retained memories of the early homestead years, which she described as follows:
“I remember our house on the homestead very well and I think that Grandpa Birnie must have built it for it was very like the one he built for themselves. It was a two-story log house with a verandah across the front. The end of our property was on a main road and the house was about a quarter of a mile or less in from the property line. My father may not have been a very good farmer but he did other things and one thing he did was to build an ice house behind the house and every winter he cut ice from the Paddle River and packed it with sawdust and we had ice all summer.
At the back of the house, the back door was close to the corner of the house and the stairs to the upstairs went up that side wall and there was a cupboard under the stairs. The cupboard was a ‘catch-all’ and we had a crazy chicken that used to go in every day during the summer when the door would be open and lay an egg. We kids thought that was great. There seemed to be a living room at the front of the house, and on the other side of the front door was a bedroom. The kitchen was at the far end of the building from the back door. I remember the four of us kids playing on a bed under a fur rug while Mum went to the store that was at the foot of our property on the road.
“I don’t remember how long Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Tom stayed in the big house. Two houses were built there but they didn’t stay in the first one very long and then Grandpa built a smaller house. “This house had two very small bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen/eating area across the back with a pantry at one end. There was a cellar in that part where they kept all their vegetables. Grandma had a big dish like a basin that she put milk in and then skimmed the cream off.
“Uncle Tom’s quarter section was on the Paddle River and Uncle Jim had the next quarter section to it. There was a road along the front of Grandma’s house and I don’t think that she ever slept for she knew who had passed in the night. She used to fish in the Paddle River. A creek ran through the property to the river and the banks were very high. Uncle Tom chopped down a tree - there was a grove of them at that point - so it fell across the mouth of the creek. He put handrails on it so we could cross the creek there instead of going back to where the banks were lower, which was quite a distance. Once Grandma was down there fishing and a squirrel chased her. She never got over that.”
Uncle Tom also had an adventure with wildlife During the early days on the homestead, he discovered a strange black and white animal in the chicken house and tried to chase it out with a bucket. He learned about skunks the hard way that morning.
Maria must have had a difficult time while Gus was away overseas. She had four small children: Lily, the eldest, would have been only five, and Ackie, the youngest, a small baby. She came of hardy stock and apparently took her troubles in stride, including the loss of both her granary home and the sawmill by fire.
For a further description of life on the homestead, Lily gave the following:
“I think my father must have joined up in the spring for we didn’t spend a winter in the big house as it would be too hard to heat. We had a granary and Grandpa fixed it up and we stayed there the first winter. He built a big bed very high up and Mum and the two youngest slept there. Underneath he built another bed on casters so that at night we could pull it out and Norah and I slept there. Mum had a curtain around the lower bed. I guess there was a stove of some kind and a table and a cupboard but she must have nearly gone crazy with four kids in that tiny space. I was the only one who went to the Leighton school. My father had given part of his land near the road for a community hall and they used to have dances there. Mum would go and Norah and I were old enough to sit up and watch. All the babies and very small children were put onto the tables in the hall and slept the night away.
“Uncle Tom built a new log barn and he walled off part of it and the next winter we moved over there. There didn’t seem to be any more room but at least Mum was near her parents and brother. There were no animals in the other part, just feed and stuff. I went to another school there and it was about a mile away. Norah started there but Ced didn’t go to school until we went into Edmonton. We used to go barefoot in the summertime and I remember the lovely feeling of the dust between our toes. I had to go for the mail there too, and the Post Office was just across from the school. It was another one-room school but I don’t remember the name of it. I was in grade three there and when we came into Edmonton, my father took Norah and I down to Rutherford and told Miss Bell and another teacher to put me back into Grade One! I guess he didn’t think very highly of the country schools but fortunately, Miss Bell decided to put me into Grade Two. My father was a Victorian and you did not talk back to him no matter how badly you felt.”
When the war ended, Gus returned to Barrhead, but not being a very ardent farmer, he decided to move to Edmonton to study journalism as he always had an interest in writing. After completion of his course he was employed by The Edmonton Bulletin as a reporter, later to become the northern editor. In this position he had responsibility for every news story originating in northern Canada.
He made a number of trips into the north and apparently was quite well known and had many contacts there who made a point of visiting him in the city to keep him posted. He travelled to Aklavik, Fort Simpson by boat up the Liard River and to Fort MacMurray several times. He was very well known in Edmonton, and seemed to know everyone he met while walking on Jasper Avenue.
He also did a considerable amount of freelance writing for a number of papers. He received international attention for his reporting of a murder case in the Arctic involving a number of Eskimos and covering a full page or more in The Toronto Star carrying his byline.
At some time in the 1920s, he began writing fiction for the “pulp” magazines. The “pulps” were usually monthly magazines printed on a type of heavy newsprint. He was very successful in this field for several years writing under his own name and the pen names of “Owen Finbar”, “Derick West” and “Sgt. Dan O’Rourke”. The idea of the pen names was so he could have more than one story in an issue without the necessity of the publisher looking like he relied on only a few authors. Issues of magazines such as “Wild West” and “Adventure” often contained more than one story by him. He also wrote one full length book “Drums of the North” and had a story reprinted in “O’Henry’s Best Short Stories of the Year”, an honor not accorded to many authors.
Present-day readers of his material should bear in mind the circumstances of the late 1920s and early '30s when his fiction production was at its peak. Radio was in its infancy at the time; television was unknown; and movies rudimentary. Set this against the background of a far less sophisticated, less well educated, and largely rural and outdoors oriented reading audience ... and you put in perspective the often simplistic plots, dialogue that is ‘corny‘ by today’s standards, and straight forward story lines. In the '20s and well into the '30s, the achievement of a Grade 8 education was considered by many to be an acceptable goal. Many, many more, particularly in rural areas, were forced by circumstances to accept educational standards that were often much lower.
In Ron’s review of the work of his father and his contemporaries, he found a set pattern in designing plots and dialogue for a specific audience, yet many of them went on to become well known as writers of more serious works after their apprenticeships in the pulps. We should also bear in mind that he wrote principally for an American reading audience. Hence, Mounties running around the Barren lands in scarlet tunics, stetsons and spurs shooting up the bad guys. He knew far better, but his American readers of those days could generally only visualize mounted policemen in a ‘wild west’ setting. So, to meet the demands of the market that provided his living he accepted the situation as it existed. Each story was illustrated and the “American” artists were instrumental in perpetuating the ‘scarlet tunics against the snow’ idea. All the foregoing aside, there is no doubt that he was a talented, prolific story teller who would very likely have gone on to higher achievements but for the onset of failing health and the Great Depression.
His work was obviously very well accepted by readers. In the ‘letters columns’ are many references to his work by readers in the U.S. and Canada. Many times repeated is the request “give us more stories by de Herries Smith”.
He was also requested by publishers to answer questions from readers about many subjects related to the north and there are a number of his responses among his clippings. Most of us go through our lives without ever attracting attention in the media. Not so in Gus’ case. He was often the subject of news articles, usually about his writing, and often in many parts of Canada and the U.S. When his book “Drums of the North” was published, it was favorably reviewed by papers in a number of major cities, including New York and Chicago. Although “Drums” was his only published book, he did write several stories of the novel length, which was about the same as a short book.
His total fiction output has not been documented, but it is believed to be close to 500 novels, short stories, etc. that were published in the pulp magazines. Over and above these are many clippings from various papers and periodicals, including a few poems.
At some time during his “Bulletin” career he picked up the nickname “Doc” and much of his work in that paper is by-lined “Doc Smith. [The City of Edmonton Archives has a clipping file entitled "MENTAL MUSH Doc Smith's column."]
When the family moved to Edmonton they bought a house on 91st Street, and later, probably in the mid-twenties, they bought the house on 87th Street.
At one time he had an office downtown where he did his writing (he was also involved in a public relations business with another man) but much of his writing was done at the dining room table in the house on 87th Street. His children could well remember being cautioned to ‘keep quiet, your father’s writing’.
When they bought the house on 87th Street it was apparently sitting on a chunk of bare ground and over the years they did improvements, fencing, landscaping, etc. He was very proud of his lawns and trees and was meticulous about caring for lawns, hedges, flower beds, fish ponds with little bridges, etc. On at least one occasion he won first prize in a city-wide competition for the best kept grounds. Any playing the children did on his lawns was done with great care. He made a lot of threats in defence of his handiwork but wasn’t remembered for carrying them out.
Sometime in the late Twenties they bought the cottage at Alberta Beach and then spent all their summers there until the time of the Second World War. In the early days at the cottage they travelled back and forth to Edmonton by train, until the roads were eventually improved and Bill Shearing and Eric Stapleton joined the family by marriage. They had cars and from that time on provided the transportation.
Gus only owned one car in his life and it sat in the garage most of the time because he had no interest in learning how to drive it. It is interesting that he discovered the cottage he would subsequently buy, sometime in the early 1900s when he was riding horseback across country between Barrhead and Edmonton. At that time there were only two or three cabins at the site that is now Alberta Beach.
When Lily, Norah and Ackie were grown and working (Cedric was away in the Navy), Maria stayed home during the summer to keep the Edmonton house going and probably to get away from the kids for a while. The younger children would go off to Alberta Beach with their father. This went on for some time until Lily, after her son Rod was born, began spending her summers at the beach looking after the gang of kids, and Norah did it later after her first child was born.
Life at the beach with Father was unusual, to say the least. He regimented the children into work parties with Ronnie and Bunty serving as the ‘dog boys’. They were responsible among other chores for washing dishes and neither would puts their hands in hot water so they washed with a rag tied to the end of a stick. Their father appointed Carrie as ‘Inspector General’. She inspected every dish and if it didn’t meet with her satisfaction, back in the water it went, sometimes two or three times. Bunty and Ronnie would be furious but didn’t dare mistreat her for fear of retaliation at the the next dish-washing session. Their father appeared to have a lot of faith in the ‘inspector’ and usually sat back reading his paper, jumping up only to settle the noisiest fights.
The boys' memories of their father’s idea of a nutritionally sound meal for a bunch of kids was a big pile of meat with new potatoes as the only vegetable. They prepared the potatoes for the pot in his homesteader’s way - by swishing them around in a bucket of water with the broom! He also leaned heavily to ‘bully beef’ and bread and jam and cocoa. They looked forward to Saturdays when the rest of the family came out from Edmonton with fresh fruit and other welcome changes in diet.
Gus’ successful writing days ran out in the early Thirties when the market fell apart.
Somewhere along the way he became very active in “The Legion of Frontiersmen”, a mounted, para-military organization, which also gave him an opportunity to continue riding. He was the editor of the organization’s magazine.
As well as being faced with the loss of his livelihood, brought on by the Depression, his health was beginning to fail. He suffered dizzy spells and other ailments that were never pinpointed, but possibly were early symptoms of the stroke that was later to claim his life. Although he continued to write and submit material, he never regained his earlier success.
When World War II broke out in 1939 he offered his help to the military and was taken on as a temporary army recruiter in the early days of the war. With four sons, Cedric, Ackie, Ron and Bunty, serving in active war theatres, this was his major concern from 1939 until it ended in 1945. He followed the course of the war by radio and print, and the BBC and CBC News were never missed.
Both Gus and Maria were devastated by the deaths of two of the four boys serving overseas. Cedric (27 yrs old) was lost with almost the entire crew in the sinking of the destroyer HMCS Margaree in a night-time collision in an Atlantic convoy. Bunty (20 yrs old) died when his aircraft was heavily damaged over Germany. He somehow managed to [make it] limp back to England where it crash-landed with the loss of the entire crew.
Gus died of a stroke on December 11, 1945 and was buried at Beechmount Cemetery in Edmonton.
Considering the fact that he left school at age 16, Gus was well educated and well read. He possessed a cultured speaking voice with absolutely no trace of an Irish accent (probably the result of stern teaching in English boarding schools). He deplored the acts of the Irish Republican Army against innocent civilians in England and seldom talked about Ireland, other than his home in Cork.
Ron noted that his father was rather eccentric. “There was only one way to do anything ...his way, and I remember many times doing what I considered a stupid task over and over until it met with his critical satisfaction. He was usually soft-spoken but he could use his drill sergeant’s voice and manner to impress facts on young ears. I don’t ever recall anything in the way of a beating (although I understand he inflicted more severe measures on Cedric and Ackie) and my punishment usually consisted of threats and maybe a tap or two. With the younger bunch he apparently revised his ideas of punishment and we were usually sent off to our rooms to study or memorize a piece of poetry or verse. It is quite possible that he found it difficult to cope with what amounted to two different aged families at the same time. When the younger bunch were still small, Cedric and Ackie would be teenagers and getting involved in normal teenage escapades.” A social life outside of the home was nonexistent. Gus spent his evenings with his pipe and his newspaper, reading every word in the Bulletin, but he also found time each evening to read and explain to the children. Their favorite was “The Swiss Family Robinson” and he read and re-read it so many times that they could mouth most of it off as fast as he could read it. Maria went to movies regularly at the Princess Theatre in South Edmonton, but he wouldn’t go, considering them a waste of time. The only time he went was when he knew there was a newsreel or something of that kind that he wanted to see and as soon as it was over he walked out.
He had a pool table in the basement and a few evenings each week three other men from the district came over to play pool for a couple of hours. World events and pioneering days were usually the major topics of discussion during these pool sessions and, for the children, much early education on these subjects was obtained by sitting on the basement steps listening to the talk. As children, he insisted that they use proper table manners and prompt obedience, and he also tried to instill a little culture in them. There was no acceptable excuse for misbehaving at school - the teacher was always right - and if you were punished at school you were also punished at home.
Although he gave the impression on sternness, he was in fact, emotional and kind-hearted, and his outward firmness was directed toward ensuring that his children were prepared to assume acceptable places in society. He was a life-time abstainer, and the only alcohol he ever touched, as far as Ron knew, was a glass of port wine during Christmas festivities.
Smith was a prolific writer of poems, short stories, newspaper articles and one full length novel. He also wrote under several other names in order to have more than one story published in single magazine.
Following is a list of his writings, including his pen names.
ss= short story
nv = novel (larger than ss)
ms = manuscript? (not accepted for publication?)
nf = non-fiction?
pm = poem?
na= narative?
SMITH, A. DeHERRIES (1881-?)
(stories)
•The Chink Rodeo (ss) The Lariat Story Magazine Dec 1925 •Boiled Mutton? - Bah! (ss) Action Stories Feb 1926 •Border Brothers (ms) Lariat Story Magazine Feb 1926 •Thunderbolt’s Track (ss) Lariat Story Magazine Feb 1926 •Cowpunchers of the Buffalo (ar) Lariat Story Magazine Apr 1926 •Soldiers of the Ice (ss) North•West Stories May #2 1926 •The Return of the Ranches (ms) Lariat Story Magazine May 1926
•Yakaw’s Yellowknives (nv) North•West Stories Jun 22 1926
•Kleskum Ranch Passes (ms) Lariat Story Magazine Jun 1926 •Drums of the Frozen Sea (nv) North•West Stories Jul #1 1926 •Sam the Sizzler (ss) North•West Stories Jul #2 1926 •The Box-Car Mission (ss) Action Stories Jul 1926 •Na-loo (pm) North•West Stories Aug #1 1926 •“Na-Loo”: A Saga of the Sea-Ice (pm) North•West Stories Aug #1 1926 •Arctic Slaves (ss) North•West Stories Aug 22 1926 •New Range Country (ms) Lariat Story Magazine Aug 1926 •Trail Riders Gather (ms) Lariat Story Magazine Aug 1926 •Buffalo for the North (ms) North•West Stories Sep #1 1926 •Half White (ss) North•West Stories Sep #2 1926 •Cow Country Comes Back (ms) Lariat Story Magazine Sep 1926 •Buffalo Round Up (ms) Lariat Story Magazine Oct 1926 •Ponto’s Navy (ss) Lariat Story Magazine Oct 1926 •Sub-Arctic Ranch (ms) Lariat Story Magazine Oct 1926 •The Cowboy’s Bible (ms) Lariat Story Magazine Nov 1926 •The Devil’s Playground (ss) Action Stories Nov 1926 •Mountain Punchers Stage Buck-Fest (ms) Lariat Story Magazine Nov 1926 •Athabaska’s Sheik (ss) North•West Stories Dec 22 1926 •Tinkle of Mail Bell (ms) North•West Stories Jan #1 1927 •Breed of the Barrens (nv) North•West Stories Jan 22 1927 •Swords of Ind (ss) Action Stories Jan 1927 •The Dancing Wolf (ss) North•West Stories Feb #1 1927 •Bugles of the Ice (ss) North•West Stories Feb #2 1927 •Across the Frozen Plains (ss) North•West Stories Mar #1 1927 •Invaders of the Ice (na) North•West Stories Mar #2 1927 •White Blood Calls (nv) Action Stories Mar 1927 •Drums of the North (sl) North•West Stories Apr 8 1927, etc. •The Valley Beyond (ss) North•West Stories Jun #1 1927 •Roaring Ice (ss) West Jun 20 1927 •Black Riders (nv) Action Stories Jun 1927 •Furs from the Frozen Seas (ss) West Jul 5 1927 •Trouble Wanted (ss) West Jul 20 1927 •The Dog Runner (ss) West Aug 20 1927 •Under Northern Stars (ss) Action Stories Aug 1927 •Guardian of the Great Divide (ss) North•West Stories Sep 8 1927 •Mark of the Wolf (na) North•West Stories Sep #2 1927 •The Cloud Dancer (ss) Air Stories Sep 1927 •Tin Pigs (ss) Action Stories Sep 1927 •Red Whips (ss) Action Stories Oct 1927 •The Goose Harvest (ss) West Nov 19 1927 •Caribou Coming! (ss) Adventure Jan 1 1928 •The Arctic Herds (ss) West Jan 28 1928 •Rustlers Ride! (ss) North•West Stories Feb 22 1928 •The Lobstick Trail (ss) Outdoor Stories Mar 1928 •Whistling Whips (ss) Outdoor Stories Apr 1928 •The Black Days (ss) West Jun 2 1928 •North of Never Never (ss) Frontier Stories Jul 1928 •Siccani Medicine (ss) Triple-X Magazine Jul 1928 •Hunters of H’Wan (ss) Adventure Aug 1 1928 •Giggling Milk (ss) Short Stories Aug 25 1928 •The Wilderness Walker (ss) North•West Stories Sep 22 1928 •Arctic Racers (ss) West Sep 29 1928 •Kid Captains (ss) Complete Stories Oct #1 1928 •Eskimo Style (ss) Adventure Oct 15 1928 •Arctic Rustlers (ss) Triple-X Magazine Oct 1928 •Kangaroo Country (ss) Frontier Stories Oct 1928 •Ice Cavalry (ss) Top-Notch Nov #1 1928 •Arctic Angels (ss) Adventure Nov 15 1928 •Mystery of Great Slave (ss) Triple-X Magazine Nov 1928 •Playboy (ss) North•West Stories Dec 8 1928 •Eskimo Raiders (ss) Complete Stories Dec #1 1928 •Dombala’s Dogs (ss) Frontier Stories Dec 1928 •Wolf Voices (ss) Complete Stories Jan #1 1929 •Mystery of the Lost Tribe (ss) Triple-X Magazine Jan 1929 •The Death Walk (ss) Complete Stories Feb #1 1929 •The Threatening Herds (ss) Short Stories Feb 25 1929 •The Silver Lizard (ss) Frontier Stories Feb 1929 •Wings of Asia (ss) Complete Stories Mar #2 1929 •Arctic Magic (ss) West Mar 20 1929 •The Grass War (ss) Complete Stories Apr #2 1929 •Arctic Snaps (ss) Complete Stories May #2 1929 •Dungeon Drums (ss) Action Stories Jun 1929 •Blubber Boats (ss) Short Stories Jul 10 1929 •Kill! Comrades, Kill! (ss) Short Stories Jul 25 1929 •Arctic Pirates (ss) West Aug 7 1929 •Telegraph Horses (ss) North•West Stories Aug 1929 •Snake Dancers (ss) Frontier Stories Sep 1929 •Turkish Delight (ss) Over the Top Sep 1929 •Eggs of Africa (ss) Frontier Stories Oct 1929 •Sea-Ice Raiders (ss) North•West Stories Nov 1929 •Dogs of Doom (ss) North•West Stories Dec 1929 •Yellow Fury (ss) Frontier Stories Dec 1929 •Buffalo Bandits (ss) West Apr 16 1930 •Blackbird Boats (ss) Action Novels Jun 1930
•Brand of the Polar Sea (nf) North•West Stories Oct 1930
•Double Dynamite (ss) War Novels Oct 1930 •North Bounty (ss) Adventure Feb 15 1931 •Aces and Engines Wild (ss) Man Stories Feb 1931 •“Miss Mystery” (ss) Western Romances Feb 1931 •Thundering Trails (ss) Western Romances Mar 1931 •The Laughing Fox (ss) Adventure May 1 1931 •Drums of the Ice (ss) Short Stories Jun 25 1931 •Black Robe’s Buffalo (ss) Adventure Aug 1 1931 •Stampede Pay-Off (ss) All Western Magazine Oct 1931 •Sally of Sundance Valley (ss) Western Romances May 1932 •Pistol Portage (ss) Action Stories Dec 1932 •The Blue Menace (ss) All Star Western & Frontier Magazine Jan 1933 •Admirals of Egypt (ss) Top-Notch Jun 1933 •Northward Ho! (pm) Action Stories Sep 1934 •Guns for Guinea (ss) Dime Adventure Magazine Aug 1935
•Green Rain (ss) Thrilling Adventures Sep 1935
•Ghost Wolves (ss) Dynamic Adventures Feb 1936 •Lighthouse Loot (ss) Thrilling Adventures Apr 1936 •Gray Hunters (ss) Top-Notch Jun 1936
•Red-Coat Law (na) North•West Stories Win 1936
•No Law Below Zero (nv) North•West Romances Fll 1938
•Murderer’s Gold (ss) North•West Romances Spr 1939
•Dancing Drums (nv) North•West Romances Win 1939
•Wolf Bait (nv) North•West Romances Spr 1940
•Gallop or Die (ss) Red Star Adventures Aug 1940 •Mark of the Mounted (ss) North•West Romances Fll 1941 •The Fur Raiders (ss) North•West Romances Sum 1942 •Peril Portage (ss) North•West Romances Win 1942 •Timber Trap (ss) North•West Romances Feb 1943 •Long-Knife Law (ss) North•West Romances Apr 1943
•Gun-Vultures of the Barrens (nv) North•West Romances Sum 1943 wn name•Bullets of Gold (ss)
[A person with a very similar name Augustus H. Smith had a couple non-fiction books published:
Economics An Introduction to Fundamental Problems (1943)
Your Personal Economics An Introduction to Consumer Problems (1940)
Economics For Our Times (1945, 1950) (Consulting editor S. Howard Patterson)
(The first is available for reading online at Hathi Trust)
But this was a different person.]
FINBAR, OWEN (fl. 1927-1942)
(stories)
•Keeyik’s Killing Song (ss) North•West Stories Feb #2 1927 •Marooned in the Barrens (ts) North•West Stories Apr 8 1927 •Cannibal Country (ss) North•West Stories May 8 1927 •Boomerang (ss) Action Stories Jun 1927 •Trailing Shadows (ts) North•West Stories Feb 22 1928 [Trail Tales] •The Far Country (ts) North•West Stories Sep 22 1928 [Trail Tales] •Ice River Cargo (ts) North•West Stories Mar 1929 [Trail Tales] •Lord of the Herd (ss) North•West Stories Oct 1929 •Arctic Devils (ts) North•West Stories Mar 1930 •The Snow Breed (vi) North•West Romances Sum 1938 •The Mad Moonias (ss) North•West Romances Win 1939 •King of the Tundra (ss) North•West Romances Spr 1940 •Gold for the Strong (ss) North•West Romances Spr 1941 •Hudson Bay Chechako (ss) North•West Romances Sum 1941 •Phantom of the Arctic (ss) North•West Romances Fll 1941 [Trail Tales]
•Wolves of the Bering (nv) North•West Romances Sum 1942
•Stalker of the Hell-Pack (nv) North•West Romances Fll 1942.
[As well another story by Owen Finbar "Gun Bucko of Resurrection Lode" was published in North-West Romances according to the magazine cover reproduced in Scarlet Riders Pulp Fiction Tales of the Mounties by Don Hutchison. (Scarlet Riders, p. XXX)]
O’ROURKE, DAN (fl. 1927-1943)
(stories)
•Returned from the Dead (ms) North•West Stories Jan #1 1927
•Deserted by His Partner (ms) North•West Stories Jan 22 1927
•Witchcraft in the Twentieth Century (ms) North•West Stories Jan 22 1927
•Conspiracy (ss) North•West Stories Mar #2 1927
•The Female of the Species (nf) The Blue Book Magazine Mar 1927
•Law of the Scarlet (ss) North•West Stories Aug #2 1927
•Daughter of the Wolf (nv) North•West Romances Sum 1938
•Blood Brother of the Snow-Gods (ss) North•West Romances Fll 1938 •Queen of the Hangman’s Kingdom (na) 1938 •Phantom Valley (ss) North•West Romances Spr 1939 •Stalker of Fate (ss) North•West Romances Win 1939 •Murder Moon (ss) North•West Romances Spr 1940 •Sourdough Stamina (ss) North•West Romances Win 1940 •The Mounted Don’t Stay Dead (ss) North•West Romances Spr 1941 •Hostage of the Mounted (ss) North•West Romances Sum 1941 •Doom Ice (ss) North•West Romances Sum 1942 [reprinted in full in Scarlet Riders Pulp Fiction Tales of the Mounties by Don Hutchison.] •The Blizzard Waif (ss) North•West Romances Fll 1942 •Queen of the Tundra Men (ss) North•West Romances Feb 1943
•Fighting Breed (nv) North•West Romances Sum 1943
WEST, DEREK (fl. 1931-1945)
(stories)
•Aces Up (cl) Aces Feb 1932 •Aces Up! (ss) Aces May 1932
•Hawks of Hades (nv) Wings Oct 1932
•The Kiwi Ace (nv) Wings Mar 1935
•The Drachen’s Brand (ss) Aces Win 1937 •Pursuit Hawk (nv) Aces Spr 1938 •Pards of the Snowshoe Trail (ss) North•West Romances Sum 1938
•Drums of the Barrens (nv) North•West Romances Spr 1939
•Smuggler of Carib Skies (ss) Air Stories Spr 1939 •Death-Watch for an Ace (ss) Aces Win 1939 •Castaway of the Bering (ss) North•West Romances Spr 1940 •Dance of Death (ss) Aces Spr 1940
•Fangs of the Gray Wolf (nv) North•West Romances Spr 1941
•The Hell Pack (ss) North•West Romances Sum 1942
This information was abridged from a booklet compiled by Ronald Smith, June 1985, for a family reunion.
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Augustus Smith's son Ronnie a writer too
his son Ronnie Birnie Smith worked as PR man for the UFA,
publisher of Western Review Drayton Valley 1965-1972 (Strathearn, Alberta Newspapers)
(Augustus's grand-daughter told me of the connection and that Ronnie was also involved in a Fort Saskatchewan newspaper, although that is not mentioned in Strathearn's Alberta Newspapers
(she may have one of Ronnie's sons get me more info) (March 2024)
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