Tony Hillerman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Anthony Grove Hillerman (1925-05-27)May 27, 1925 Sacred Heart, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Died | (2008-10-26)October 26, 2008 (aged 83) Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist, journalist, educator |
| Alma mater | University of Oklahoma University of New Mexico |
| Notable awards | 1974Edgar Award for Best Novel[1] 1987Grand Prix de Littérature Policière 1988 Anthony Award 1991Nero Award 1995 Anthony Award anthology 2002 Anthony Awards memoir Special Friends of the Dineh Award[2] |
| Spouse | Marie Unzner |
| Children | 6, includingAnne Hillerman |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States Army |
| Service years | 1943–1945 |
| Unit | 103rd Infantry Division |
| Conflicts | World War II |
| Awards | Silver Star Bronze Star Medal Purple Heart |
Anthony Grove Hillerman (May 27, 1925 – October 26, 2008[3]) was an American author ofdetective novels and nonfiction works, best known for his mystery novels featuringNavajo Nation Police officersJoe Leaphorn andJim Chee. Several of his works have been adapted for film and television, including theAMC seriesDark Winds.
Tony Hillerman was born inSacred Heart, Oklahoma, to August Alfred Hillerman, a farmer and shopkeeper, and his wife, Lucy Grove. He was the youngest of their three children, and the second son. His paternal grandparents were born inGermany, and his maternal grandparents were born inEngland. He was a first cousin once removed of actorJohn Hillerman. He grew up inPottawatomie County, Oklahoma, attending elementary and high school withPotawatomi children.[3]
Jeffrey Herlihy argues that this background made possible "a significantly different portrayal of Native Americans in his writing",[4] in comparison to other authors of his time. "Most obviously important," Hillerman said of his childhood, "was growing up knowing that Indians are just like everybody else. You grew up without an 'us and them' attitude about other races."[5]
Hillerman was a decorated combat veteran ofWorld War II, serving from August 1943 to October 1945 as a mortarman in the103rd Infantry Division in theEuropean theatre. He earned theSilver Star, theBronze Star Medal withOak Leaf Cluster, and aPurple Heart. He was wounded in 1945, and the injuries included broken legs, foot, and ankle, facial burns, and temporary blindness.[6]
Hillerman attended theUniversity of Oklahoma after the war, meeting Marie Unzner, a student inmicrobiology. The couple wed and had one biological child and five adopted children.[3] He graduated in 1948 with aBachelor of Arts (BA) degree in journalism.[6]
From 1948 to 1962, he worked as a journalist, moving toSanta Fe, New Mexico, in 1952.[7] In 1966, he moved his family toAlbuquerque, where he earned a master's degree from theUniversity of New Mexico. During his time as a writer for theBorger News-Herald inBorger, Texas, he became acquainted with the sheriff ofHutchinson County, the man upon whom he would pattern the main character in his Joe Leaphorn novels. He taught journalism from 1966 to 1987 at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and also began writing novels. He lived there with his wife Marie until his death in 2008. At the time of his death, they had been married 60 years and had 10 grandchildren.[3][8]
A consistently bestselling author, he was ranked as New Mexico's 22nd-wealthiest man in 1996. He wrote 18 books in his Navajo series. He wrote more than 30 books total, among them a memoir and books about theSouthwest, its beauty, and its history. His literary honors were awarded for his Navajo books. Hillerman's books have been translated into eight languages, among them Danish and Japanese.[7][8]
Hillerman's writing is noted for the cultural details he provides about his subjects:Hopi,Zuni, European settlers, federal agents, and especially theNavajo Nation Police. His works in nonfiction and in fiction reflect his appreciation of the natural wonders of the American Southwest and his appreciation of its indigenous people, particularly theNavajo. His mystery novels are set in theFour Corners area ofNew Mexico andArizona, sometimes reaching intoColorado andUtah, with occasional forays to the big cities of Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and New York City. The protagonists areJoe Leaphorn andJim Chee of the Navajo Nation Police. Lt. Leaphorn was introduced in Hillerman's first novel,The Blessing Way (1970). Sgt. Jim Chee was introduced in the fourth novel,People of Darkness (1980). The two first work together in the seventh novel,Skinwalkers (1986),[9] considered his breakout novel, with a distinct increase in sales with the two police officers working together.[7]
Hillerman repeatedly acknowledged his debt to an earlier series of mystery novels written by British-born Australian authorArthur W. Upfield and set amongAboriginal Australians in remote desert regions of tropical and subtropical Australia. The Upfield novels were first published in 1928 and featured a half-European, half-aboriginal Australian hero, Detective-InspectorNapoleon (Bony) Bonaparte. Bony worked with deep understanding of Aboriginal traditions. The character was based on the achievements of Tracker Leon, a biracial Aboriginal Australian man who worked for theQueensland Police and whom Upfield had met during his years in the Australian bush.[7]
Hillerman discussed his debt to Upfield in many interviews and in his introduction to the posthumous 1984 reprint of Upfield'sA Royal Abduction. In the introduction, he described the appeal of the descriptions in Upfield's crime novels. It was descriptions both of the harshOutback areas and of "the people who somehow survived upon them" that lured him. "When my own Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police unravels a mystery because he understands the ways of his people, when he reads the signs in the sandy bottom of a reservation arroyo, he is walking in the tracks Bony made 50 years ago."[10]
He also mentionedEric Ambler,Graham Greene, andRaymond Chandler as authors who influenced him as he wrote the Leaphorn and Chee novels.[7]
In an interview published inLe Monde, Hillerman said his Navajo name means "He who is afraid of his horse".[11]
Tony Hillerman died on October 26, 2008, ofpulmonary failure in Albuquerque at the age of 83,[3] and was interred atSanta Fe National Cemetery.[12]
Hillerman's novels were popular in France. Hillerman credits that popularity both to French curiosity about other cultures and to his translator, Pierre Bondil.[11][13]
Hillerman is considered one of New Mexico's foremost novelists.[14] The Tony Hillerman Library was dedicated in Albuquerque in 2008,[15] and the Tony Hillerman Middle School (part ofVolcano Vista High School) opened in 2009.[16]Dance Hall of the Dead, published in 1973, earned Hillerman theGrand Prix de Littérature Policière in 1987, a French international literary honor. Hillerman was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Literature (Litt.D.) from the University of New Mexico in 1990.[17] He was awarded the Owen Wister Award in 2008 for "Outstanding Contributions to the American West."[18]
Hillerman was a decorated combat veteran ofWorld War II; he earned theSilver Star, theBronze Star, and aPurple Heart as a mortarman in the103rd Infantry Division.
He won and was nominated for numerous awards for his writing and his work with other writers. His first nomination came in 1972, with his novelThe Fly on the Wall being nominated for anEdgar Award in the "Best Mystery Novel" category. Two years later his novelDance Hall of the Dead, second book in the Leaphorn-Chee series, won the 1974Edgar Award for Best Novel.[1] He was again nominated for the "Best Mystery Novel" Edgar Award in 1979 forListening Woman and lastly in 1989 forA Thief of Time.[1] Hillerman's non-fictional workTalking Mysteries was nominated in 1992 for the Edgar Award in the "Best Critical or Biographical" category.[19]
In 1987, Hillerman received theGrand Prix de Littérature Policière forDance Hall of the Dead. In 1991, Hillerman received the MWA'sGrand Master Award. Hillerman received theNero Award forCoyote Waits[20] and theNavajo Tribe's Special Friends of the Dineh Award.[2]
Hillerman has also been successful at the annualAnthony Awards. His novelSkinwalkers won the1988 Anthony Award for "Best Novel", and in the following yearA Thief of Time was nominated for the1989 Anthony Award in the same category.[21] His next nomination was for hisTalking Mysteries non-fictional work which was nominated at the1992 Anthony Awards.[21] His novelSacred Clowns received a "Best Novel" nomination at the1994 Anthony Awards, and the following year his short-story collectionThe Mysterious West won the1995 Anthony Award in the "Best Anthology/Short Story Collection" category.[21] His last win came at the2002 Anthony Awards at which he won the "Best Non-fiction/Critical Work" award for his memoirSeldom Disappointed.[21]
Two of the Navajo Police novels won The Spur award, given by the Western Writers of America annually.Skinwalkers won the award in 1987 for Western Novel, andThe Shape Shifter won in 2007 for Best Western Short Novel.[22]
Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir won theAgatha Award in 2001.[23]
Hillerman's novels were recognized at theMacavity Awards.A Thief of Time won the "Best Novel" award in 1989, andTalking Mysteries won the "Best Critical/Biographical" award in 1992.[24]Seldom Disappointed also received a nomination in the "Best Biographical/Critical Mystery Work" category in 2002.[24]
He received the Parris Award in 1995 by Southwest Writer's Workshop for his outstanding service to other writers.[25] In 2002, Hillerman received theAgatha Malice Domestic Award for Lifetime Achievement, given by Malice Domestic for mystery novels in the spirit of Agatha Christie.[2][26]
The first three books feature Joe Leaphorn only and as a supporting secondary character in the first novel. The next three books feature Jim Chee only. Leaphorn and Chee begin working together in the seventh novel,Skinwalkers.
In 2013, Hillerman's daughterAnne Hillerman publishedSpider Woman's Daughter (ISBN 0062270486), the first new novel since 2006 featuring Hillerman's Navajo Police characters; the novel's protagonist is Jim Chee's wife, Officer Bernadette Manuelito. Leaphorn's involvement is curtailed in the first chapter of the book. Leaphorn is the victim of an assassination attempt, spends half of the book in a coma, and later was severely limited in his ability to communicate. Chee and Bernadette Manuelito are the crime solvers from that book forward in the series, with Leaphorn never fully active in the investigations (though he regains his faculties over time and consults often).
Here, however, Hillerman brings together his two series characters--middle-aged, cynical Lt. Joe Leaphorn and young, mystical Officer Jim Chee--without in any way diminishing the stark power and somber integrity that have distinguished previous exploits of the Navajo Tribal Police.
