Henry Wallace Phillips

Henry Wallace Phillips
Henry Wallace Phillips was an American author best known for his humorous Western and frontier stories. His popular works include "Red Saunders: His Adventures West and East" (1901) and "Plain Mary Smith: A Romance of Red Saunders" (1904), which depicted rough-and-tumble characters with wit and charm. Phillips wrote in a lively, colloquial style that resonated with readers at the turn of the century. Despite his success, little is known about his later life, and his work faded from public memory after his early popularity.

Author's Books:


A Chance Shot Reddy and I were alone at the Lake beds. He sat outside the cabin, braiding a leather hat-band—eight strands, and the "repeat" figure—an art that I never could master. I sat inside, with a one-pound package of smoking tobacco beside me, and newspapers within reach, rolling the day's supply of cigarettes. Reddy stopped his story long enough to say: "Don't use... more...

The Baa-Sheep and the Lion. A baa-sheep was lying under the paw of a black-maned lion. Whatever was going to be done had to be done quickly. A thought flashed upon the sheep and he said: "Most dread lord and master, I have heard your voice extolled beyond that of all others. Will you not sing me a little selection from Wagner before I die?" The lion, touched in his vanity, immediately started... more...

The Pets "Of all the worlds I ever broke into, this one's the most curious," said Red. "And one of the curiousest things in it is that I think it's queer. Why should I, now? What put it into our heads that affairs ought to go so and so and so, when they never do anything of the sort? Take any book you read, or any story a man tells you: it runs along about how Mr. Smith made up... more...

BY PROXY I had met Mr. Scraggs, shaken him by the hand, and, in the shallow sense of the word, knew him. But a man is more than clothes and a bald head. It is also something of a trick to find out more about him—particularly in the cow country. One needs an interpreter. Red furnished the translation. After that, I nurtured Mr. Scraggs's friendship, for the benefit of humanity and philosophy.... more...