Owen Wister was an American writer and historian, considered the "father" of western fiction. He is best remembered for writing The Virginian and a biography of Ulysses S. Grant.
Frederic Sackrider Remington was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United States in the last quarter of the 19th century and featuring such images as cowboys, American Indians, and the US Cavalry.
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 20th century and Louis L'Amour from the mid-20th century. The genre peaked around the early 1960s, largely due to the popularity of televised Westerns such as Bonanza. Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s and reached a new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside a few west American states, only carry a small number of Western fiction books.
Spur Awards are literary prizes given annually by the Western Writers of America (WWA). The purpose of the Spur Awards is to honor writers for distinguished writing about the American West. The Spur Awards began in 1953, the same year the WWA was founded. An author need not be a member of the WWA to receive a Spur Award. Among previous Spur Award winners are Larry McMurtry for Lonesome Dove, Michael Blake for Dances with Wolves, Glendon Swarthout for The Shootist, and Tony Hillerman for Skinwalkers.
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 Western and Native American art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of American rodeo photographs, barbed wire, saddlery, and early rodeo trophies. Museum collections focus on preserving and interpreting the heritage of the American West. The museum becomes an art gallery during the annual Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition and Sale each June. The Prix de West Artists sell original works of art as a fund raiser for the museum. The expansion and renovation was designed by Curtis W. Fentress, FAIA, RIBA of Fentress Architects.
Western Writers of America (WWA), founded 1953, promotes literature, both fictional and nonfictional, pertaining to the American West. Although its founders wrote traditional Western fiction, the more than 600 current members also include historians and other nonfiction writers, as well as authors from other genres.
Glendon Fred Swarthout was an American writer and novelist.
Lester Michael Brumbelow was an American football and basketball player and coach. He played football and basketball for Texas Christian University from 1927 to 1929 and was the captain and most valuable player of the TCU Horned Frogs undefeated 1929 football team that won the school's first Southwest Conference championship. He later served as an assistant football coach and head basketball coach at TCU from 1936 to 1941. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II in the athletics program at the Navy Pre-Flight School, and attained the rank of lieutenant commander. After the war, he served as an assistant football coach at the University of Mississippi from 1946 to 1948. From 1950 to 1956 he was the head football coach at Texas Western College, now the University of Texas at El Paso; he also served as the school's athletic director from 1950 to 1959.
Laura Cunningham Wilson is an American photographer. She has completed seven books of photography and text: Watt Matthews of Lambshead (1989), Hutterites of Montana (2000), Avedon at Work: In the American West (2003), Grit and Glory: Six-Man Football (2003), That Day: Pictures in the American West (2015), From Rodin to Plensa: Modern Sculpture at the Meadows Museum (2018), and The Writers: Portraits by Laura Wilson (2022). She is the mother of actors Andrew Wilson, Owen Wilson, and Luke Wilson.
William Michael Gear, better known as W. Michael Gear, is an American writer and archaeologist. He is the author of North America's Forgotten Past series, co-written with Kathleen O'Neal Gear. In 2021 he won the Owen Wister Award for lifetime contributions to western literature, and was inducted into the Western Writers Hall of Fame. In 2023 he received the Frank Waters Award for "a body of work representing excellence in writing and storytelling that embodies the spirit of the American West." He's been inducted into the Colorado Authors Hall of Fame. His novels have been published in 29 languages.
Daniel Thomas Jenkins was an American author and sportswriter who often wrote for Sports Illustrated. He was also a high-standard amateur golfer who played college golf at Texas Christian University.
Maggie Shayne is an American author of more than 70 novels. Shayne has won multiple awards, including the Romance Writers of America RITA Award, multiple Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice and Career Achievement Awards, The Readers' Choice Award, and the P.E.A.R.L. Award, among others. In addition to her work as a novelist, Shayne is active in the Wiccan religion.
Kathleen O'Neal Gear is an American archaeologist, historian, and New York Times bestselling author or co-author of 57 books and over 200 non-fiction publications. The United States Department of the Interior awarded her two Special Achievement Awards for outstanding contributions to the protection of America's archaeological, historical, and cultural resources. In 2015, she was honored by the United States Congress with a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition. In 2021 she won the Owen Wister Award for lifetime contributions to western literature, and was inducted into the Western Writers Hall of Fame. In 2023 she received the Frank Waters Award for "a body of work representing excellence in writing and storytelling that embodies the spirit of the American West." Her novels have been published in 29 languages.
William Grant Bagley was a historian specializing in the history of the Western United States and the American Old West. Bagley wrote about the fur trade, overland emigration, American Indians, military history, frontier violence, railroads, mining, and Utah and the Mormons.
Owen Wister Award is an annual award from the Western Writers of America given to lifelong contributions to the field of Western literature. Named for writer Owen Wister, it is given for "Outstanding Contributions to the American West".
The Spur Award for Best Western Novel is a prize given by the Western Writers of America as part of the annual Spur Awards.
Mike Kearby is an American novelist and inventor. Since 2005, Kearby has published twelve novels and two graphic novels.
Anne Windfohr Marion was an American heiress, rancher, horse breeder, business executive, philanthropist, and art collector from Fort Worth, Texas. She served as the president of Burnett Ranches and the chairman of the Burnett Oil Company. She was the founder of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1981, she was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Katie Sherrod is an American journalist who was inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame in 1987. In 1991, she was fired from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram over accusations of plagiarism.
Fran Garmon is an American basketball coach. Her collegiate heading coaching career included position at Temple Junior College, Delta State, and Texas Christian University. She was active in the USA Basketball, serving as head coach of the gold medal winning World University Games team in 1979 and the Pan American Games team in 1983. She also held leadership positions with the US national team. Garmon was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.
