Forrestine C. (Forrestine Cooper) Hooker

Forrestine Cooper Hooker was an American author born in 1867 and died in 1932. Reliable library and publisher records identify her as Forrestine C. Hooker, also known as Forrestine Cooper Hooker.

She is remembered for fiction for young readers rooted in her own experiences of the West. University of Oklahoma Press notes that she wrote nine novels for young adults based on her childhood in the frontier army and her later life as a ranch woman in southern Arizona. Archival records also connect her closely with the world of the Buffalo Soldiers through her father, Charles L. Cooper, an officer in the 10th U.S. Cavalry.

Her western memories lasted beyond fiction. An unfinished memoir was later edited and published as Child of the Fighting Tenth: On the Frontier with the Buffalo Soldiers, helping preserve her firsthand view of military post life and the changing American frontier.