Norman in the 1940's.
By mid 1940 Norman was publishing between two and three short stories a month. He
was also contracted by Phoenix Press to write a full length novel, which he titled "The Gunsight Kid"
that was published in 1941. Norman went on to have one to two novels a year published in each
of the next twenty years. He continued writing short stories, as well.
Norman was publishing enough stories that he was soon using pseudonyms to prevent his
name from showing up too many times in a single magazine in a single month. As the decade
went on, he used some of these pen names for short stories while publishing
novels under his birth name. Here is a list of the pseudonyms used by Norman:
| Clint McLeod |
| Mark Sabin |
| Stone Cody |
| Dave Sands |
| Winslow Smith |
The United States entered World War II on December 8th, 1941. Norman was
drafted, but failed the physical and was unable to serve. Norman's brother Elmer
likewise failed the physical, but
four of their remaining brothers served overseas during
the war.
Norman's brother Joe had joined the Marine Corps prior to the war. Brothers
Melvin and Robert also fought in the Marines, while brother Dave served in the Army
Air Corps. All the brothers safely
returned to Montana after the war.
In 1946 Norman and Patsy decided their marriage wasn't working and divorced.
Norman continued writing and publishing. Within a few years he had contracts with
Dodd Mead & Co. for each hard cover novel and with Dell publishing for paperbacks.
He had contracts with Fontana Publishing to have his novels published in Great
Britain.
Norman never had a book series featuring the same set of characters, though he did have four
novels in the 1940's published that had the same main characters. These were lighthearted
stories that featured a reformed outlaw name Rowdy Dow and his side kick, a grizzled
cowboy name Stumpy.
Norman worked with an artist friend to develop his own letterhead and stationary.
He used this for all his correspondence concerning his writing profession. That
stationary is used as the background image for this web site.
By 1949, Norman's long time platonic relationship with a friend named
Rosalea Spaulding
had deepened. Rosalea was a English teacher and cat lover who Norman had known for years.
On July 7, 1949, Norman and Rosalea were married.
