Harvey Fergusson

Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1890, Harvey Fergusson grew up in a family active in public life and later studied at Washington and Lee University. He began his career in journalism, working for newspapers in Washington, D.C., Savannah, and Richmond before leaving reporting to write full time.

His fiction often drew on the places and institutions he knew well. Capitol Hill reflected his experience in political reporting, while several of his best-known books explored the history of New Mexico and the wider American West. Among them, The Blood of the Conquerors, In Those Days, and Wolf Song helped establish his reputation, with Wolf Song especially remembered as a major Western novel.

Fergusson also worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter and wrote nonfiction, including books about the Rio Grande, American political behavior, and his own Western roots. He spent his later years in Berkeley, California, and died in 1971.