Piccadilly Publishing / BRET SANDERS

BRET SANDERS

Piccadilly Publishing / BRET SANDERS

Bret Sanders was the pseudonym used by Dudley Dean McGaughey, a prolific writer of pulp westerns and popular novels, who published over one hundred books during his lifetime. He was born April 2, 1909, in Covington, TN, a cotton raising center. He was the son of Herbert Dana McGaughey and [Mary] Leora McGaughey.

He spent his early years at the Clark Ranch in the San Bernardino mountains. After college, according to the paperback biographies, he devoted himself to the writing of radio serials and magazine stories, and then did a stint with a Hollywood trade paper.

Dean Owen, the pseudonym he most often used, was then a full-time freelance writer from the early 1950s until his death. His first stories and novels were westerns, and he continued to write them throughout his career. Some of his more notable works were novels adapted from the television shows "Bonanza," "Hec Ramsey," and "The Rebel," as well as a science fiction/popular novel taken from the movie "Reptilicus."

McGaughey published under a number of pseudonyms, including Dudley Dean, Owen Dean, Lincoln Drew, Lin Evans, Owen Hodge, Owen Lynn, Dean McCoy, Dean Owen, and Brian Wynn.

McGaughey and his wife, Penny, lived in Laguna Beach, California. He died on October 3, 1986.