William R. (William Rheem) Lighton

Born on July 13, 1866, in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, William Rheem Lighton grew up largely in Nebraska. According to archival biographical notes, a childhood injury kept him out of school for several years, and he became an avid reader early on; he was already writing as a boy.

He later taught school for a year in western New Mexico before turning to newspaper work. That mix of frontier experience, teaching, and journalism fed directly into his writing, which often drew on life in the Midwest and West.

Lighton published both fiction and nonfiction, including novels such as The Ultimate Moment and works connected with western and American historical subjects such as Lewis and Clark. He died in 1923, leaving behind a body of writing that reflects the energy of regional American literature at the turn of the twentieth century.