Lewis Byford Patten (January 13, 1915 – May 22, 1981) was a prolific author of American Western novels, born and died in Denver, Colorado.
[1][2] He often published under the names Lewis Ford, Lee Leighton and Joseph Wayne.
During that time, he penned at least 110 novels and a further 3 collections of short stories all mostly in the 'Western' genre of writing.
That he is not better known as a writer is likely due to the fact that Hollywood movie makers were not exactly beating down his door to turn his many writings into Hollywood movies.
The later 1971 Movie Long Live Your Death, which featured the noted actors Eli Wallach and Lynn Redgrave, cheated this unofficial Hollywood boycott of Patten by actually being a non-Hollywood so-called Spaghetti Western.