R. H. (Robert Henderson) McKay

Born in the 1840s and later known as R. H. McKay, he wrote from experience rather than imagination. His best-known book, Little Pills, an Army Story (published in 1918), draws on his service as a medical officer with the United States Army on the frontier nearly fifty years earlier.

In the book's foreword, he explains that the story was first written for his children and only later published at the urging of friends. That personal origin gives the memoir an easy, conversational tone, even as it records the practical realities of army life, medicine, travel, and settlement in the American West.

Today, McKay is remembered mainly for that memoir, which remains valuable as a firsthand account of frontier military life. Readers interested in Western history, military medicine, or autobiographical writing from the period will likely find his work especially appealing.