David Dary, a native of Manhattan, Kansas, worked for CBS News and NBC News in Texas and Washington, D.C., and for many years taught journalism at the University of Kansas. He then headed the School of Journalism at the University of Oklahoma, from which he recently retired. Dary is the author of nine previous books on the West, including Cowboy Culture and The Santa Fe Trail. He is the recipient of a Cowboy Hall of Fame Wrangler Award, two Western Writers of America Spur Awards, the Westerners International Best Nonfiction Book Award, and the Owen Wister Award for lifetime achievement from the Western Writers of America. He lives in Norman, Oklahoma.