Dec 31, 2009

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee | Author Biography

Dee Brown was born on February 28, 1908, in Alberta, Louisiana. He grew up in Arkansas, where he met many Native Americans. He found it hard to believe the myths of Native-American savagery and read everything he could find about the real history of the American West. Since he was pursuing a career as a librarian at the same time, he frequently had access to the materials he needed. At George Washington University, he studied library science and worked as a library assistant for the United States Department of Agriculture. After receiving his bachelor's degree in library science in 1937, Brown held his first librarian position at the Beltsville Research Center (1940-1942).

Dee Brown

In 1942, he published his first novel, Wave High the Banner, a historical novel based on the life and adventures of Davy Crockett, the legendary frontiersman. Over the next few decades, Brown wrote several more novels and nonfiction books about the American West and earned his master's degree from the University of Illinois (1952). He also worked as a librarian for the United States War Department and the University of Illinois, ultimately becoming a professor of library science at the university from 1962 to 1975.

However, despite all of these accomplishments, it was Brown's 1970 publication of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee that made him a household name. After that, Brown published several works, including a nonfiction book, Wondrous Times on the Frontier (1993); a collection of autobiographical writings, When the Century Was Young: A Writer's Notebook (1993); and a novel, The Way to Bright Star (1998). However, none of these works received the attention or praise of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, which is still Brown's best-known work.

After retiring, Brown lived in Little Rock, Arkansas, devoting his time to writing. He died on December 12, 2002, at the age of 94 from heart disease.