Which writer's short story inspired The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance?

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was inspired by a short story by Dorothy M. Johnson. Johnson published the Western story in 1953, and it became the source for John Ford’s 1962 film starring James Stewart, John Wayne, and Vera Miles.

Johnson’s story centers on a man whose public reputation does not match the truth behind a famous gunfight. Ford’s adaptation preserves that core idea while expanding the setting, political tensions, romance, and relationship between idealistic lawyer Ransom Stoddard and rugged gunfighter Tom Doniphon. The film’s famous contrast between historical fact and heroic legend is rooted in Johnson’s original premise.

Dorothy M. Johnson was one of the most respected Western writers of the twentieth century. Other stories of hers became films, including A Man Called Horse and The Hanging Tree. A common error is to credit Ford or the screenwriters with inventing the story; Ford directed the movie, but Johnson wrote the underlying fiction. The film’s title is therefore shared by both the 1953 short story and the 1962 adaptation.