Career

He is most remembered for two classic Western novels, (1954) and (1957). They were adapted into the motion pictures (1956. With John Wayne and directed by John Ford) and (1960.

With Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn).

He also wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for Reap the Wild Wind (1942. With John Wayne and Paulette Goddard) and Blackbeard the Pirate (1952.

With Robert Newton), North West Mounted Police (1940. Foreign Cecil B DeMille and starring Gary Cooper and Paulette Goddard), and the novel for Along Came Jones (1945.

With Gary Cooper), as well as a score of other screenplays and an assortment of novels and short stories.

Le May wrote and directed High Lonesome (1950) starring John Drew Barrymore and Chill Wills and featuring Jack Elam. Le May also wrote and directed Quebec (1951), also starring John Drew Barrymore. He attended Stetson University in DeLand, Florida in 1916.

In 1918 he registered for the World War I draft in Aurora, and then enlisted and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States. Army.

While attending the University of Chicago, where he graduated in 1922 with a Bachelor of Philosophy degree, he joined the Illinois National Guard. He was promoted to First Lieutenant Field Artillery for the Illinois National Guard in 1923.

He published his first novel,, in 1927 (about the Cheyenne and the U South Cavalry horse soldiers).