Stuart Lake is best known for writing the bio Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal.
After it was published in 1931, Lake spent much of his life in Hollywood, consulting on Westerns like “My Darling Clementine” and the TV series “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp” (photo with star Hugh O’Brian).
Around 1950, he sued Universal Studios for $400,000. He alleged that they took a story

True West March/April 2025
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Truth Be Known
- What Has Taught Me: Deb Goodrich
- Earp, Cowboy Songs & Prairie Hygiene
- Trails of the Old West
- The Frontier Characters of South Dakota
- The Bowie Knife
- The Kindled Flame 1835
- King of the Scatterguns
- Selling the Mythic West and the Real West
- A Gut Punch Turns into a Miracle Reprieve
- The Beginnings of the Bird Cage
- Frontier Colossus