Harlan Hague

Harlan Hague traveled a circuitous road to western literature. A native Texan, he earned business degrees at Baylor University and University of Texas and worked in management for four years before receiving his enlightenment and switching career and field to teaching history. He earned a further two degrees, the last a Ph.D. in history from University of Nevada, Reno. He taught United States history, American West and the environment at San Joaquin Delta College and summers at Cal State Stanislaus and University of Oregon.

While teaching, Hague wrote a few dozen history articles on the American West that published in scholarly journals. He turned to writing books and, in the process, received a number of academic and professional honors and grants, including National Endowment for the Humanities, Sourisseau Academy, The Huntington Library, the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Hanes Foundation and Westerners. He served on the boards of the California Historical Society and Western Writers of America and as a consultant on a National Endowment for the Humanities advisory body in Washington, D.C.

His other passion, besides teaching and writing, is travel. After a most satisfying tour of duty in Japan, he took his release from the U.S. Navy there and traveled solo for six months in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, in the process proving the Earth is round. Since then, he has visited about eighty countries and wrote travel articles about his experiences that published widely. He and his family spent an idyllic sabbatical year living in England’s north Cotswold Hills.

Since turning to books, Harlan Hague writes about people searching for redemption and fulfillment in the West, running from their demons, leaning on others. He likes endings that close with a sigh and a question. His books have won several awards in national competitions. His screenplays, mostly based on his books, have earned some notice and are making the rounds.