Western Writers of America Pays Tribute to Tony
Hillerman
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Years ago, Tony Hillerman walked through a
hotel door at a Bouchercon mystery convention looking so dazed, Loren
D. Estleman had to ask if anything was wrong.
“He said, ‘I just found out I'm on the
New York Times list,’” recalled Estleman, an award-winning author in
both the mystery and Western genres. “Doubtless he was always
surprised by his acclaim, which is one of the reasons his writing
always rang true.”
Hillerman, the best-selling novelist
who won two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America and the Edgar
and Grand Master awards from Mystery Writers of America, died Oct. 26
at Presbyterian Hospital of pulmonary failure. He was 83.
“The world has lost a gentleman and a
giant,” Estleman said.
Praise for Hillerman, best known for
his contemporary mysteries set on the Navajo Nation and featuring
tribal policemen Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, rang throughout the
Western Writers of America community.
"Aside from being a masterful
storyteller, Tony Hillerman was wise, generous, smart as a whip, and
above all else a fine man,” said Michael McGarrity, the author of
TULAROSA and other mysteries who helped establish the
Hillerman-McGarrity Scholarship Fund at the College of Santa Fe.“Fame
and literary praise sat lightly on his shoulders, and he always had
time for aspiring writers who sought him out,” McGarrity said. “He
once told me that of all his awards and honors, he was most proud of
his Combat Infantry Badge. A highly decorated World War II veteran,
Tony was a true American hero. He stood tall, did right, never let a
friend down, and gave us wonderful stories that will endure for
generations to come. Thanks, Tony, for all of it."
Hillerman’s health had been failing
over the past year. Western Writers of America honored him with the
Owen Wister Award for lifetime achievement in June.
"Of all the people I'd like to be
recognized by, the Western writers are it because I'm a Western
writer," Hillerman said.
A native of Sacred Heart, Oklahoma,
Hillerman called New Mexico home for more than 50 years. Beginning as
a journalist in Santa Fe, he moved on to teaching journalism at the
University of New Mexico where he was also the faculty adviser for the
Daily Lobo, the student newspaper. After his success with his Joe
Leaphorn/Jim Chee series, Hillerman quit teaching to write full time.
“Tony Hillerman was one of our
greatest novelists and gave us an unusual glimpse into the unfamiliar
world of Indian mysticism,” said Elmer Kelton, a seven-time Spur Award
winner and author more than 40 books.
Hillerman also received the Los
Angeles Times’ Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, the
Center for the American Indian's Ambassador Award and the Navajo
Tribe’s Special Friend Award. His novels included the Spur-winning
SKINWALKERS (1986) and THE SHAPE SHIFTER (2006) as well as DANCE HALL
OF THE DEAD (1973), A THIEF OF TIME (1988) and COYOTE WAITS (1990). He
also wrote nonfiction, including THE GREAT TAOS BANK ROBBERY AND OTHER
INDIAN COUNTRY AFFAIRS (1973), and a memoir, SELDOM DISAPPOINTED
(2001).
Hillerman is survived by his wife
Marie, and six children.
"For all his success, Tony was always
humble, and giving to other writers,” said WWA president Johnny D.
Boggs. “He loved to tell stories, and was just a natural, gifted
storyteller. American literature -- not just mystery and contemporary
Western literature -- has lost one of its greatest voices."
The Hillerman family has asked that in
lieu of flowers, donations be made to Catholic Charities (6001 Marble
NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110), St. Bonaventure Indian School Mission &
School (PO Box 610, Thoreau, NM 87323-0610), or to the charity of your
choice.
TUCSON,
Ariz. -- Fred Grove, one of the most versatile and awarded Western
novelists whose career spanned six decades, has died.
Grove,
who won five Spur Awards from Western Writers of America, two Western
Heritage Wrangler Awards from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage
Museum, and the Levi Strauss Saddleman Award (now the Owen Wister
Award) for lifetime achievement, died Thursday, September 11, after a
long illness. He was 95.
“Western
Writers of America mourns the passing of Fred Grove,” WWA President
Johnny D. Boggs said. “We express our deepest sympathy to Fred’s wife,
Lucile, and his son, Bill. Yet at the same time, we celebrate Fred’s
life, his love of the West and literature, and all of his personal and
professional accomplishments. Fred will be missed, but a writer of his
talent will never be forgotten.”
Of Osage
and Sioux descent, Frederick Herridge Grove was born on July 4, 1913,
in Hominy, Oklahoma, and moved to Fairfax, where an incident in 1923
influenced much of his writings.
A
late-night explosion rocked the family’s home, and the following
morning, the young boy learned that nitroglycerin had been used to
destroy an Osage Indian’s nearby house, killing two people and fatally
injuring a third. The killings were part of a wave of greed-motivated
murders of Osage Indians during Oklahoma’s oil boom, and became a
national scandal. Eventually, the organizer of those murders, William
Hale, was convicted and sent to prison.
“I’m not
a hater,” Grove once told True West magazine. “I just think
Bill Hale was disgusting. ... I get mad every time I think about him.”
Grove
fictionalized the Osage Indian troubles of the 1920s in his first
novel, Flame of the Osage (1958) and in subsequent novels
War Journey (1971), Warrior Road (1974) and The Years of
Fear (2002), the latter which he called his favorite and most
personal novel. Yet his fiction covered a variety of subjects.
He wrote
about the Civil War, contemporary horse racing and the buffalo
slaughter, with The Buffalo Runners (1968) winning the Western
Heritage Wrangler Award. His novels about the Apache Indian frontier,
which included Phantom Warrior (1981) and A Far Trumpet
(1985), led Western New Mexico University to present Grove with a
Distinguished Service Award. He also wrote a tongue-in-cheek series
about a slick horse trader, his sidekicks, and one fast horse. Two of
those novels, The Great Horse Race (1977) and Match Race
(1982), won Spur Awards.
A former
sportswriter in Oklahoma and Texas after graduating from the
University of Oklahoma in 1937 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism,
Grove also wrote short stories for adults and children. “When the
Caballos Came” and “Comanche Son” first appeared in Boys’ Life
magazine, published by the Boy Scouts of America, and won the Spur
Award and Wrangler Award, respectively. Other stories appeared in pulp
magazines such as Ranch Romances, West, Max Brand’s Western
Magazine and .44 Western, and anthologies including The
Pick of the Roundup (1963) and With Guidons Flying (1970).
“I like
short stories,” Grove said. “I just want someone to think it’s an
entertaining story with maybe a little glimpse into people.”
Grove,
who wrote more than 30 novels, also won Spurs for the novel
Comanche Captives (1961) and the short story “Comanche Woman”
(1962). Other novels include No Bugles, No Glory (1959), The
Child Stealers (1973), Bitter Trumpet (1989), and The
Spring of Valor (2003). His last published novel was Trouble
Hunter (2006).
His
stories always were personal, solidly grounded in fact. While he often
relied on his newspaper background to research topics, many of his
stories came naturally. His father had been a cowboy, and his mother
was born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. One of
his professors at the University of Oklahoma was historian Walter
Campbell, who wrote as Stanley Vestal and once introduced Grove to
Texas folklorist J. Frank Dobie. Grove later lived in Silver City,
N.M., before moving to Tucson in the 1990s to be closer to his son.
“I’ve
always enjoyed writing Western stories,” Grove said. “I hope people
find mine interesting and maybe learn a little bit about people, what
people are like.”
Grove is
survived by his wife, Lucile, whom he married in 1938, and his son,
William, both of Tucson.
SHANE the Greatest Western Movie of All Time,
Western Writers of America announces
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- SHANE, director George Stevens’ classic 1953
movie about a weary gunfighter caught up in a land war between Wyoming
ranchers and farmers, is the greatest Western movie of all time,
Western Writers of America has announced.
For
top honors SHANE, which Pulitzer Prize-winning Western novelist A.B.
Guthrie Jr. adapted for the screen from Jack Schaefer’s novel, edged
HIGH NOON, the 1952 movie that won Gary Cooper his second Academy
Award as Best Actor.
Western Writers of America, a nonprofit organization of more than 600
professional writers, founded in the 1950s to promote and honor the
best literature about the American West -- including screenwriting --
announced the 100 Greatest Western Movies of All Time on Thursday,
June 12, at Scottsdale’s Chaparral Suites during the association’s
annual convention.
“This
year has been incredible,” WWA Executive Director Paul Hutton said.
“Cormac McCarthy’s brutal little contemporary Western NO COUNTRY FOR
OLD MEN did great at the box office, taking in over $60 million and
was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Directors Joel and Ethan Coen
got nominations, too. Paul Thomas Anderson also was nominated for
THERE WILL BE BLOOD, his amazing adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s 1927
novel Oil, with his lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis, winning the Oscar.”
Members voted on their top 10 Western movies, and the ballots were
tabulated at the WWA offices at the University of New Mexico.
No. 3
was THE SEARCHERS, director John Ford’s powerful 1956 story about a
vengeful Texan’s quest to find his two nieces, taken by Comanche
Indians, based on Alan LeMay’s novel. No. 4 was BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE
SUNDANCE KID, the 1969 movie that first teamed Paul Newman and Robert
Redford. Kevin Costner’s Academy Award-winning DANCES WITH WOLVES
(1990), from Michael Blake’s novel, rounded out the top five.
Rounding out the top 10 were director Sam Peckinpah’s bloody,
end-of-the-West opera THE WILD BUNCH (1969); Howard Hawk’s first
Western, RED RIVER (1948), which gave John Wayne one of his best
roles; the surprise cult O.K. Corral favorite TOMBSTONE (1993),
starring Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer; THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960), a
Western retelling of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s brilliant
SEVEN SAMURAI: and OPEN RANGE (2003), which starred Robert Duvall in
another Costner-directed movie.
“It’s
not the Top 10 I would come up with,” says incoming WWA president
Johnny D. Boggs, “but that’s the fun of lists like these. It prompts
lively debate, and members of Western Writers of America can be as
passionate about Western film as they are about literature of the
West.”
WWA’s
membership roster is filled with writers who are no stranger to
Hollywood, including screenwriters Kirk Ellis, Steve Harrigan, C.
Courtney Joyner, Andrew J. Fenady, Stephen Lodge, and Miles Hood
Swarthout, whose father, the late Glendon Swarthout, wrote the novel
THE SHOOTIST, which became John Wayne’s last movie.
Bill
Gulick (BEND OF THE RIVER, THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL) and Max Evans (THE
ROUNDERS, THE HI-LO COUNTRY) saw two of their novels adapted for the
screen. Hutton, Boggs and fellow members Michael F. Blake, Win
Blevins, Brian Garfield, and Arthur Winfield Knight have written
extensively about Western film.
In
2009, WWA plans to announce the 100 Greatest Western Television
Movies, Series and Miniseries of All Time during the convention in
Oklahoma City.
For
information on the WWA convention, call the organization’s executive
director’s office at (505) 277-5234 or log on to
www.westernwriters.org.
The
complete list follows:
WWA
Top 100 Westerns
1.
Shane
2.
High Noon
3. The
Searchers
4.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
5.
Dances with Wolves
6. The
Wild Bunch
7. Red
River
8.
Tombstone
9. The
Magnificent Seven
10.
Open Range
11.
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
12.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
13.
True Grit
14.
The Shootist
15.
Stagecoach (1939)
16.
Unforgiven
17.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
18.
The Outlaw Josey Wales
19.
Ride the High Country
20.
Jeremiah Johnson
21.
The Cowboys
22. My
Darling Clementine
23.
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
24.
Rio Bravo
25.
The Ox-Bow Incident
26.
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
27.
Lonely are the Brave
28.
Will Penny
29.
Hud
30.
Winchester`73
31.
Little Big Man
32.
3:10 to Yuma (1957)
33.
The Grey Fox
34.
The Alamo (1960)
35.
Silverado
36.
Ulzana’s Raid
37.
Once upon a Time in the West
38.
Rio Grande
39.
The Rounders
40.
The Big Country
41.
The Hi-Lo Country
42.
Duel in the Sun
43.
Fort Apache
44.
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
45.
The Last Picture Show
46.
The Grapes of Wrath
47.
Bad Day at Black Rock
48.
The Long Riders
49.
The Tall T
50.
Cat Ballou
51.
Tumbleweeds
52.
The Iron Horse
53.
Man of the West
54.
Seven Men from Now
55.
The Big Trail
56.
Three Godfathers
57.
Hell’s Hinges
58.
The Wind (1928)
59.
The Westerner
60.
Support Your Local Sheriff
61.
They Died with Their Boots On
62.
Gunfight at the OK Corral
63.
The Professionals
64.
The Cheyenne Social Club
65. El
Dorado
66.
Thunderheart
67.
The Virginian (1929)
68. A
Man Called Horse
69.
Hombre
70.
Barbarosa
71.
Chisum
72.
The Big Sky
73.
Young Guns
74.
Destry Rides Again
75.
Junior Bonner
76.
Angel and the Badman
77.
Warlock
78.
The Misfits
79. No
Country for Old Men
80.
Monte Walsh
81.
Four Faces West
82.
The Naked Spur
83.
The Gunfighter
84.
High Plains Drifter
85. D
evil’s Doorway
86.
Law and Order (1932)
87.
Coroner Creek
88.
Valdez is Coming
89.
Hondo
90.
The Man from Laramie
91.
The Unforgiven (1960)
92.
Broken Arrow
93.
Bend of the River
94.
Giant
95.
Blazing Saddles
96.
The Culpepper Cattle Company
97.
Three Bad Men
98.
Pursued
99.
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
100.
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS
La Frontera to Publish WWA Anthology
A collection of some of the best writing
being created by today’s Western authors will be published as a joint
effort by WWA and La Frontera Publishing (www.lafronterapublishing.com).
The anthology, scheduled for a Fall 2009
release, will present a variety of fictional stories, nonfiction essays
and poetry about the West, ranging from the time of the frontier to
contemporary Western experiences.
La Frontera Publishing, based in Cheyenne,
Wyoming, is partnering with WWA to develop the anthology project, which
will also serve as a fund-raiser for WWA with any future royalties going
to WWA.
“The world remains fascinated by the
American West, because it represents individualism, courage, bravery,
and even triumph over hardship and tragedy,” said Mike Harris, president
and publisher of La Frontera Publishing. “That’s why Western stories
remain popular for millions of readers. I expect when the public
discovers the range of emotion and passion that the members of the WWA
will bring to this anthology, readers won’t be able to put down the
book.”
WWA Executive Director Paul Hutton will
write an introduction to the anthology, while a committee will work with
La Frontera to select the stories, articles and poems to be published in
the anthology.
The anthology will be divided into four
sections.
The Early Frontier will include one
nonfiction article, one original poem and three original short fiction
stories set in the American frontier from pre-European contact to the
Civil War.
The Traditional West will include one
nonfiction article, one original poem and four original short fiction
stories set in the Civil War or post-Civil War West. At least one
published story will be set during the Civil War in the West.
The Indian Perspective will include one
nonfiction article, one original poem and four original short fiction
stories told from the Native American perspective, set in the American
frontier or West from any period.
The Contemporary West will include one
nonfiction article, one original poem and four original short fiction
stories set in the Contemporary West (post-World War II).
A final nonfiction article will close the
anthology. Possibly, two other poems will be included in the anthology.
A photo of each contributor and a short
bio will precede each piece, with longer biographies of contributors and
editors possibly running at the end of the book, followed by one page on
WWA membership and one page on La Frontera.
Manuscripts should be no longer than 5,000
words. Poetry should not exceed 500 words.
Selected essay and fiction writers will
receive a one-time payment of $100, plus a copy of the anthology.
Selected poets will receive a one-time payment of at least $50, plus a
copy of the anthology.
WWA members included in the anthology
project agree to limit their compensation to the honorarium, and waive
any claim for additional payments from the publisher or the WWA as the
anthology is a WWA fund-raiser. Authors also agree not to publish the
material again for a minimum of 18 months after publication in the
anthology.
The anthology is open to any WWA member,
active or associate, in good standing.
Manuscripts should be mailed to the WWA
Executive Director’s Office – WWA Anthology, WWA, MSC06 3770, 1
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001 – or emailed as a
Microsoft Word attachment to the office,
wwa@unm.edu, no later than September 30, 2008. The section
(Frontier, Traditional, Indian, Contemporary) and form (Fiction,
Nonfiction, Poetry) MUST be noted on the title page of the manuscript
and, if applicable, in the email subject field.
Western Writers To Showcase Top Work
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—A collection of some of the best writing created by
today’s Western authors will be published as a joint effort by Western
Writers of America,
www.westernwriters.org, and La Frontera Publishing,
www.lafronterapublishing.com, both parties announced today.
The anthology, scheduled for a Fall 2009 release, presents a variety of
stories ranging from frontier to contemporary Western experiences,
including works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
“The more than 600 members of Western Writers of America write
everything from classic Old West tales to stories about modern life in
the West,” WWA President Cotton Smith says. “The anthology we envision
will be a true sampler of the best writing from our members, a real
taste of the American West both past and present.”
La Frontera Publishing, based in Cheyenne, Wyoming, is partnering with
the Western Writers of America to develop the anthology project. “The
world remains fascinated by the American West, because it represents
individualism, courage, bravery, and even triumph over hardship and
tragedy,” La Frontera president and publisher Mike Harris says. “That’s
why Western stories remain popular for millions of readers. I expect
when the public discovers the range of emotion and passion that the
members of the WWA will bring to this anthology, readers won’t be able
to put the book down.”
Since 1953, the nonprofit Western Writers of America (www.westernwriters.org)
has promoted and honored the Western literature, fiction and nonfiction.
Its more than 600 members include novelists, historians, screenwriters,
songwriters, poets, agents and editors. WWA bestows Spur Awards for
distinguished writing in the western field. WWA actively helps its
members promote their books and articles, and aggressively promotes the
literature of the American West, which it considers this country’s
unique contribution to world literature.
La Frontera Publishing publishes historic fiction and non-fiction books
about the American West. In addition, the company’s Internet magazine,
OldWestNewWest.Com, can be found at
www.oldwestnewwest.com. Contact La
Frontera (307)778-4752.
