Dee Brown | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Dorris Alexander Brown February 29, 1908 Alberta, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | December 12, 2002(2002-12-12) (aged 94) Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Education | MLS (Master of Library Science) |
| Occupations | |
| Spouse | Sally Stroud |
| Children | 2 |
Dorris Alexander"Dee" Brown (February 29, 1908 – December 12, 2002) was an Americannovelist,historian, andlibrarian. His most famous work,Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970), details the history of the United States' westward colonization of the continent between 1860 and 1890 from the point of view ofNative Americans.
Born on Leap Year Day 1908 (a Saturday, and the same day Billy the Kid killer Pat Garrett died in what would in 1912 become New Mexico) in Alberta,Louisiana, a sawmill town, Brown grew up inOuachita County, Arkansas, which experienced an oil boom when he was thirteen years old. Brown's mother later relocated toLittle Rock so he and his brother and two sisters could attend a better high school. He spent much time in the public library reading the three-volumeHistory of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark which saw him develop an interest in theAmerican West. He also discovered the works ofSherwood Anderson andJohn Dos Passos, and laterWilliam Faulkner andJoseph Conrad. He cited these authors as those most influential on his own work.[1]
While attending home games by the baseball team theArkansas Travelers, he became acquainted withChief Yellow Horse, a pitcher. His kindness, and a childhood friendship with aCreek boy, caused Brown to reject the descriptions of Native American peoples as violent and primitive, which dominated American popular culture at the time.
He worked as aprinter andreporter inHarrison, Arkansas, and decided to continue his education at Arkansas State Teachers College inConway, Arkansas. His mentor, the history professor Dean D. McBrien, helped give him the idea to become a writer. They traveled west along with other students on two occasions in a Model T Ford. On campus, Brown worked as an editor to the student newspaper and was a student assistant in the library. The latter convinced him that he should become alibrarian.
In the midst of theGreat Depression he went toGeorge Washington University in Washington, D.C. for graduate study. Brown worked part-time forJ. Willard Marriott, attended classes, and married Sally Stroud (another graduate of Arkansas State Teachers College drawn to Washington by theNew Deal). Eventually he found a full-time job and became a librarian for theU.S. Department of Agriculture from 1934 to 1942. He lived at 1717 R StreetNW, in theDupont Circle neighborhood.[2]
Brown's first novel was a satire of New Deal bureaucracy, but it was not published, owing to the bombing ofPearl Harbor. The publisher suggested "something patriotic" instead. He responded withWave High The Banner, a fictionalized account of the life ofDavy Crockett (who was an acquaintance of his great-grandfather). A few months after its publication, he was drafted into the U.S. Army where he met Martin Schmitt, with whom he collaborated on several works after the war. During the war, Brown worked for theUnited States Department of War as a librarian and never went overseas.
From 1948 to 1972, he was anagriculture librarian at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he had gained amaster's degree inlibrary science, became aprofessor, and raised a son, Mitchell, and daughter, Linda, with his wife Sally.
As a part-time writer, he published nine books, three fiction and six nonfiction, by the end of the 1950s. During the 1960s, he completed eight more includingThe Galvanized Yankees, which Brown described as requiring more research than any of his other books, andThe Year of the Century: 1876, which he described as his personal favorite.
During 1971, his bookBury My Heart at Wounded Knee became a best-seller. Many readers assumed that Brown was of Native American heritage.[3]
During 1973, Brown and his wife retired inLittle Rock, Arkansas, where he devoted his time to writing. His later works includeCreek Mary's Blood, a novel telling of several generations of a family descended from oneCreek woman, andHear That Lonesome Whistle Blow, which described the chicanery and romance concerning the construction of the western railroads. His last book-length work,The Way To Bright Star, is apicaresque novel set during the Civil War. He never completed its sequel, which was to featureP. T. Barnum andAbraham Lincoln.
Brown died at the age of 94 inLittle Rock, Arkansas.[4][5] His remains are interred inUrbana, Illinois, along with those of his wife.
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