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Marshal South (born Roy Bennett Richards; 24 February 1889 – 22 October 1948) was an Australian-American author, poet, and artist. From 1930 to 1947, he lived with his wife and three children on desolate Ghost Mountain in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, a so-called "experiment in primitive living" chronicled in 102 monthly columns for Desert Magazine. He was additionally the author of eight novels, alongside dozens of published poems, short stories, and essays.

Early life
Roy Bennett Richards was born on 24 February 1889 in Glenelg, a seaside suburb of the Southern Australia capital Adelaide. His parents were Annie Emma Richards (née Afford) of Adelaide, and Charles Bennett "Charlie" Richards; they had married on 6 August 1877, when she was 18 and he 29, with Silas Mead officiating. Charlie Richards had married once before, when he was 20, resulting in two sons and ending in divorce in 1875.

Charlie Richards was born in Wisconsin, but left as a nine year old when his father moved the family in search of better opportunities. Richards became a sheep rancher; The Adelaide Observer described him as "one of the pioneer pastoralists in the province", and later remembered him as "a most energetic and fearless man among live stock". When Richards took cattle out to the country for the first time, the Observer wrote, one of his horses was killed, and Richards promptly roped a wild steer and harnessed it in the horse's place in the shafts of his wagon. In another feat, reported by at least four newspapers—and testifying to his drive—Richards took a team of ponies 320 miles over five days, including 120 miles on the final day; he claimed that he could have gone another 30 miles that day, if he desired.

Though born outside Adelaide (possibly at his grandmother's house) Roy Richards grew up in the rural farming community Pandurra, on one of the many ranches that his father owned or leased. Coming across nine-year-old Richards in 1898, member of parliament Thomas Burgoyne—at Pandurra with fellow members of the Pastoral Commission Lee Batchelor, Alexander Poynton, Laurence O'Loughlin, William Copley, and John George Bice—described him as a "small boy, distinctly of the Australian species, in age about ten, in stature appearing to be barely six, but in precocity of intellect something approaching closely to twenty years". Asked if the elder Richards was expecting the party, his son, "eying one of the party who presented a robust and well-fed appearance, said, with a broad grin and a decided wink—'Well, I spect he does, for he's killed a calf an' a sheep.'"

Writings
Roy Richards began writing while young. His first publications appeared in the Port Augusta Dispatch, which professed "a considerable amount of pride" in the works of "our youthful contributor." His 1904 short story A Terrible Christmas Eve may have been his first work to be published, appearing in print when he was 15. This was followed in 1905 by at least four other short stories—A Dangerous Tale, The Second Gun: The Story of a Great Revenge, The Phantom Steamer!, and The Valley of Death—along with a political essay, The Peril of the Future, concerning the "Yellow Peril."

Until his 1907 departure to the United States, Richards continued to publish short stories, poetry, and editorials in the Dispatch and occasionally in The Gadfly, an Adelaide weekly. These appeared under his own name as well as a number of pseudonyms, including "A. B. C.," "Non Itchia," "Walking Man" and "Pedestrian." Around this time Richards was also a student at St Peter's College, a prestigious boys' school in Adelaide; Richards left after 1906, perhaps due to his father's desire for him to work on a ranch.

Departure from Australia
Annie Richards fled her husband in 1907, taking Roy and his older brother Norman with her. Roy Richards presaged the departure with a series of four letters to the Dispatch over the course of a month. The third, published on 28 June, was an ode to himself; "Bow to our Royal Richard now", he wrote, terming himself "a prophet without honor in his town". Finally, on 12 July, Richards presented "Lines dedicated to 'Walking Man' nee 'Pedestrian,' on his departure from Port Augusta", concluding "Farewell, farewell, farewell, to thee, May thou die happy—so may we." According to family history Roy Richards had wanted to pursue a writing career, and his father wished him to pursue a career on the ranch. His parents' marriage may also have been difficult, as hinted at by his father's earlier divorce. In any event, Annie, Norman, and Roy Richards took all the money they could find in the house, and left.

After their departure, Charles Richards advertised widely in Adelaide papers, offering a £20 reward for their return; failing this, he offered the same reward "to the first person who gives me correct information of the person who escorted Mrs C. B. Richards to Saltia, on the morning of the 18th Sept., 1907, from the Greenbush Gaol, where she had been harboured for a time against my consent." Fearful of being followed, Annie, Roy, and Norman Richards moved frequently for several years, possibly within California, before finally settling in Oceanside, California, in 1911. From then on the family typically claimed to be from England, although Norman put his mother's birthplace as "New York" on his wedding certificate. Norman changed his middle name from Afford—his mother's maiden name—to Allen; Annie listed herself as the widow of "W. C. Richards" rather than the wife of "C. B. Richards"; and Roy Bennett Richards became Benjamin Richards.

Becoming Marshal: warrior poet
Within a year of settling in Oceanside, Roy Richards was again writing, this time for several Los Angeles papers. Yet now he went by the name Benjamin Richards, and, in writing, by the pen name Marshal South. On 27 December 1913, the Oceanside Blade reported that a "poem by B. Richards who writes under the pseudonym of Marshal South, and entitled 'Lights of Vera Cruz,' appeared in the magazine section in last Sunday's Los Angeles Times". The multiple meanings of "Marshal"—one who leads, one of high military rank, or a deputy—may have appealed to Richards. The American West certainly did; his 1905 story A Dangerous Tale was set in Texas, and as his biographer later noted, "[t]he only thing missing from his author photo on the back cover of Child of Fire, published in 1935, was a badge." "South," likewise, may have been an invocation of the American Southwest, or perhaps of Australia, the southern land. Richards continued writing as Marshal South, publishing some two dozen poems in the Los Angeles Times alone. One, on the sinking of SMS Emden, attracted the attention of the German ambassador, who wrote South a letter expressing his great interest in the poem. Another, submitted to the Los Angeles Tribune, was deemed good enough to forward to The American Magazine, where it received broader publicity. His works also appeared in many other publications, such as the Blade. The paper was enthusiastic: it began referring to Richards as "Oceanside's poet laureate," and regularly praised his contributions to it and other papers.

At the same time, Richards was becoming more political and militaristic. A January 1915 poem, Beware!, reflected the looming specter of World War I in speaking to the "need [of] guns and the men to serve" to defend freedom. Just months before, he had sought to do just what his prose suggested—"wake the sullen guns to greet the fray"—by calling for a display of military arms at the Hansen store (temporarily renamed "Fort Hansen") where he was a clerk. For the occasion Richards provided what the Blade described as "a sword bayonet used in Maori war in New Zealand; spurs formerly used by a Mexican bandit who died with his boots on; and a luger pistol of great velocity used by European armies". Richards next moved to organize the Oceanside Debating Club, and shortly thereafter formed a local rifle club affiliated with the NRA. "The Marshal is very military even in his titles", said the Blade; in 1915, a year when various of South's works were entitled The Protest of the Dead, Prepare, and The Sword of Flame, the Blade had a new moniker for South: "a warrior poet."

Richards continued with the debating and rifle clubs throughout the first half of 1915, but at the start of the year he shifted his attention to a third organization, the American Defense League. "Safe at Last! Wow!" championed the Blaze upon its founding, and quoted Richards as saying its mission was "to work for the awakening of public sentiment to a realization that an efficient preparation is the surest preventive of war". Oceanside was Company A of a planned nationwide movement and Richards, who now claimed to be an "ex-officer in the British army", assumed the role of president and the title of Captain; in July he resigned from the rifle club, citing his increased work with the Defense League. Richards and the Defense League led drills, formed a magazine,  lectured, and gained publicity. On his visit to the Panama–California Exposition in San Diego, former president Theodore Roosevelt met with Richards, telling him that "I am proud as an American that you have started this league". Richards presented Roosevelt with a copy of his poem Welcome, printed in the San Diego Sun on the day of Roosevelt's arrival; a year later Richards mailed another poem to Roosevelt, receiving a personal thank you note in return. At the end of 1915 the defense league announced that it was joining forces with a San Diego group and moving its headquarters there. The Oceanside group became a branch organization, and Richards transitioned into the role of special national representative and organizer.

By the end of 1914 the Blade had begun referring to Richards as Marshal South with increasing frequency. In November, it asked in jest "whether he has chosen wisely in writing under the name of Marshal South", and suggested that "for those who wish to achieve any success in public life the best kind of name is one that consists of a dactyl and a spondee". Richards responded in the next issue that "the name 'Marshal South' is not, as [your correspondent] evidently supposes, an idly assumed nom de plume. On the contrary the name is an hereditary designation which has been in the family of the writer many years. The name is an hereditary one, which certain inidviduals [sic] of the family are privileged to assume under certain conditions with the somewhat sinister crest which accompanies it. Those who have borne the name in the past in various countries have not been numerous, and have beeen  [sic] separated by wide intervals of time, but their deeds have been not altogether unnoticed in their time and generation. A previous bearer of the name very ably assisted Sir Henry Morgan in the sack of Panama and managed to leave behind him an interesting record." The Blade soon dropped mention of Richards from its pages, referring to him almost exclusively by his chosen name, Marshal South.

Around the summer of 1916, South was selected by the draft.

Books
Between 1935 and 1948, South saw eight books published. Each "follow[ed] a basic formula, differing only in the setting and the characters. There was always a treasure, a damsel in distress, a hero with sterling qualities that prevailed over the villains and won the heart of the damsel, and all the books were cliffhangers."



South also had a children's book, The Book of Ona: Desert Child, rejected by Farrar & Rinehart in 1939.

Poetry
In addition to his column in Desert Magazine, South published more than 50 poems, 10 or 11 magazine articles and stories, and 29 newspaper articles, essays and stories.


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Desert Magazine

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Works by Tanya South

 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South's poetry and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South's poetry and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South's poetry and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South's poetry and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South's poetry and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South's poetry and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South's poetry and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South's poetry and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South's poetry and probably written by him.


 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.


 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.
 * Credited to Tanya South, but stylistically similar to Marshal South and probably written by him.



C. B. Richards notices