Paul Andrew Hutton

True West’s historian is a natural storyteller whose love of country and the West makes him one of best in his field.

- STUART ROSE BROOK

Do you remember the first time you read Paul Andrew Hutton? He immediately captured my interest and imagination with his double-barreled literary prose and academic virtuosity in the pages of his first book, Phil Sheridan and His Army (University of Nebraska Press, 1986; new edition, University of Oklahoma Press, 1999). Whether or not you were knowledgeable about General Sheridan before you read Hutton’s awardwinning biography, this book hooked you and made you eager to read more history written and interpreted by Hutton. He was an academic historian who wrote in the style of the best popular, commercial historians, including his mentor, Robert M. Utley. Phil Sheridan and His Army received the 1987 Ray Billington Award from the Organization of American Historians and the Western Writers of America’s 1986 Spur Award for best nonfiction.

Fortunately for all of us, Hutton has continued to write award-winning Western history, not just for university and academic journal publishers, but for popular magazines, film and television. He loves telling a good story, and his resume is replete with dozens of magazine articles and television writing credits, along with over 300 appearances as an on-air commentator in episodic documentary television. During an academic and professional writing and editing career that now spans 47 years, Hutton has earned numerous awards from his peers, including six Western Writers of America Spur Awards, the most recent in 2017 for Best Nonfiction Book, The Apache Wars, and six Western Heritage Awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.