| An interview with John Tanner, winner of the WWHA Lifetime Contributions Award |
9/13/2008 |
1. Give us a brief history of your interest in the Wild West.
My mother's people began to settle in east Texas in 1825, and most moved on to south Texas in the late 1850s. My great granddad, accompanied by one of his twelve sisters and a brother-he only had six of them, set out for New Mexico and then to Arizona in the late 1890s. He served as a deputy in Gila County where my mother was born (the rest of the family continue to remain in south Texas). Family stories of the West featuring this or that relative, interspersed with the tales of Porter, Rhodes, Santee, and James, were regular fodder. Even so, my undergraduate education focused on ancient and medieval history. For a young graduate with an empty wallet, European research was unrealistic. In graduate school I turned to American history and most especially Western history. My mentor-one of Herbert Eugene Bolton's protégés-encouraged me to write, and the California Historical Society published my first article in 1969. With a second publication in 1970, I thought my interest was fixed, but the Alaskan frontier soon lured me away from the Spanish and Mexican eras of California's history (although Karen and I revisited the subject in 2000). Growing interest in the Far North-fostered by a youthful exposure to Jack London and Rex Beach-resulted in a dozen or so articles in the 1970s and a book written between 1976 and 1984, squirreled away for years, dabbled with for a few more years, and finally published in 1998. Karen joined me in a return to that subject area, and we wrote a couple of Alaska-based articles in 1999 and 2004. It was her interest in the Southwest, however, that brought me full circle to the region of my childhood fascination and to the beginning of our joint research/writing.
2. What was your first published book? What is your personal favorite of your published works?
My first published book, Alaskan Trails..., examined the evolution of dogsled racing-the men, the dogs, the equipment, and the events-particularly during the Seward Peninsula's gold rush era.
The article "Murder Most Foul: A New Mexico Cause Célèbre" (The Way West: True Stories of the American Frontier, edited by James A. Crutchfield) is one of my favorites as is The Last of the Old-time Outlaws, which provided an opportunity to explore the life of one of the family personalities that captivated me as a youngster.
3. What area, events or characters are your main interests?
With a handful of exceptions, the area of focus has been New Mexico, Arizona, and south Texas in the 1890s, and I favor happy-go-lucky characters rather than dour hard cases.
4. What is your current or next research and/or writing project?
Dangerous Desperadoes, Bronco Bill's Gang, is now under consideration by a publisher, and a book on the 1894 Maricopa, Arizona, train robbery and its unusual aftermath is through the first draft stage. Fascination with New Mexico Territory's murderesses prompted a couple of articles-"Murder Most Foul" (mentioned above) and "Mayhem and Murder in New Mexico: The Case of Ada Hulmes." Research on other New Mexican femme fatales remains ongoing, and files continue to grow on a couple of other topics.
5. What suggestions do you have for novice writers that will assist them to be successful?
An author once wrote, "Research, more often than not, is the sum of an author's indebtedness to others." This field (and the WWHA) is blessed with a number of people who are especially generous with their time and expertise. Seek their assistance and advice.
Avoid a subject just because you think it warrants an article or book. Stick with topics you really enjoy and have fun with them. After several years of research, in 1968 I finished the rough draft of my first book. By that time I had also become so bored with the topic that even now, forty years later, I have never regained the enthusiasm necessary to complete it.
Gain familiarity with the region about which you are writing. Before Frederick Jackson Turner became associated with the Huntington Library, one of his more accomplished students was heard to moan, "How can Turner write about the West when he's never been west of Wisconsin?" On my recent return from Tulsa, I had the opportunity to roam through some mesas that were previously known to me only by way of topographical maps. Seeing them first hand, I gained an entirely different perspective regarding a topic of interest to me.
Recognize when it is time to stop researching and get to writing.
6. Finally, what do you think of the new WWHA?
The wonder of history is that it offers twenty-first century enthusiasts the opportunity to flirt with nineteenth century events, locales, institutions, and characters. The WWHA, comprised of a diverse cross section of enthusiasts-something well in excess of six hundred I understand-who share the yearning to know and understand the uniqueness of the Wild West, has demonstrated in only a few short months that it is now, and will increasingly be, a particularly significant vehicle in furthering that comprehension.
