Richard W. Etulain

Richard W. Etulain, a specialist in the history and literature of the American West, is the author or editor of 60 books. He is professor emeritus of history and former director of the Center for the American West at the University of New Mexico.  He also served as editor of the New Mexico Historical Review. Among his best-known books are Stegner: Conversations on History and Literature (1983, 1996) and Re-imagining the Modern American West: A Century of Literature, History, and Art (1996). Etulain holds a PhD from the University of Oregon (1966) and taught at Idaho State University (1970-79) and the University of New Mexico (1979-2001).  He served as president of both the Western Literature and Western History associations.  He now lives in the Portland area with his wife, Joyce, a retired children's librarian.

‘The Bridge of the Gods’: Frederic Homer Balch’s novel of Indigenous people, ministry, and romance

Some literary historians consider the book the most important novel of the Pacific Northwest written during the 19th century.

William Lysander Adams stirred the pot of 19th-century Oregon politics with ‘Treason, Stratagems, and Spoils’

The poetic satire pitted Democrats against Whigs in a story of a judge willing to break laws to fulfill his outsized political ambitions.

‘Captain Gray’s Company,’ by Abigail Scott Duniway, is a revealing, if disorganized, novel about pioneer women

The 1859 novel by the journalist and women’s suffrage activist has its flaws but is valuable for its portrayal of the never-stop work of women who came across the Oregon Trail.

Margaret Jewett Bailey’s 1854 novel ‘The Grains’ is a flawed success about frontier Oregon

The autobiographical novel suffers from jumbled organization but nevertheless provides a revealing look at 19th-century Oregon life.

H.L. Davis: Oregon’s only Pulitzer winner for fiction deserves to be better known

“Honey in the Horn,” a coming-of-age tale that shows how environmental settings mold human ideas and actions, won the literary distinction, but detractors said it was too critical of Oregon and its people.

‘The Jackson County Rebellion’: Historian Jeffery Max LaLande offers a new view of Southern Oregon

Themes of populist insurgency, ballot theft, and violence in 1930s Oregon carry resonances for modern readers.

OSU professor Tracy Daugherty’s new book traces life of legendary Western author Larry McMurtry

The five-time Oregon Book Award winner exhibits his critical literary skills and extensive research in a sweeping biography of the “Lonesome Dove” author.