Charles Alden Seltzer (1875–1942) was an American author who established a highly prolific career writing Western fiction during the early twentieth century. Born in 1875, Seltzer became a prominent voice in shaping the popular mythology of the American West, producing a vast body of work that captured the imagination of contemporary readers.
Seltzer's literary output was characterized by its accessibility and wide reach, particularly through his contributions to popular periodicals. He authored numerous short stories and serialized works, finding his most significant success in the pages of Argosy magazine. As one of the premier pulp publications of its time, Argosy served as a major platform for Seltzer's frontier tales, helping him build a dedicated national readership.
Beyond his success in print, Seltzer's storytelling proved highly adaptable to the visual medium of cinema. He accumulated writing credits for more than a dozen film titles, bridging the gap between traditional Western literature and the rapidly growing motion picture industry. Through his extensive catalog of novels, magazine stories, and screen adaptations, Seltzer left a lasting mark on the Western genre before his death in 1942.
