Lucia St. Clair Robson | Historical Novelist

Lost and Found

Landscape between Benson and Dragoon, Arizona When I lived in southern Arizona in 1972 I never imagined I would write a book, much less a story set there. Twenty-seven years later I was driving through my old Arizona haunts while researching a sixth historical... read more

“A Race of Convicts”

Here’s what that brilliant, scrofulous 18th-century English curmudgeon, Samuel Johnson, wrote about Americans. “Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.” Now why would Dr. Johnson say such a... read more

Chiggers and Cherokees

My editor, Pam Strickler, and I at a WWA conference In 1983 I attended my first Western Writers of America conference in Amarillo Texas. My Ballantine editor came with me because WWA had awarded Ride the Wind the Spur Award for best Long Historical Novel... read more

Fiction as Autobiography: Chapter One

When trying to imagine the experiences of dead and imaginary individuals from times long past, reference books can go only so far. I have to get off the academic bus and strike out into my own malpais of memories. That isn’t as far fetched as it... read more