Dee Brown

Dorris Alexander "Dee" Brown (February 29, 1908 – December 12, 2002) was an American novelist and historian. His most famous work, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970) details the relationship between Native Americans and American expansionism. This work led to further understanding of the Native American culture by the common American, and caused a new look at the history of the American west, from the Native American point of view.

Easton Press Dee Brown books

  Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Franklin Library Dee Brown books

  Creek Mary's Blood - Limited First Edition Society - 1980

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Author Dee Brown

Born in Alberta, Louisiana, Brown grew up in Ouachita County, Arkansas and Little Rock, where he became friends with many Native Americans who made him realize that the portrayals of their people in American movies was not the true story. He worked as a reporter in Harrison, Arkansas, then became a teacher and librarian.

He was a librarian for the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1934 to 1942 and for the United States Department of War after serving in the army in World War II. From 1948 to 1972, he was an agriculture librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he had gained a master's degree in library science and became professor. In 1973, he retired back in Arkansas and devoted his time to writing.

When Bury My Heart was published, many readers assumed that he was of Indian heritage, but in fact he was not. He did however come from a family with deep frontier history.

He wrote several novels during his life, the first being Wave High the Banner, a fictionalized account of the life of Davy Crockett (who was an acquaintance of his great-grandfather). He wrote over a dozen books, including several for children, before Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee came out. Another popular work, Creek Mary's Blood, was a novel telling of several generations of a family descended from one Creek woman.

Brown died at the age of 94 in Little Rock, Arkansas. His remains are interred in Urbana, Illinois. The Central Arkansas Library System named a branch library in Little Rock for him.

Dee Brown books in order

Fighting Indians of the West (1948)
Trail Driving Days (1952 with Martin F. Schmitt)
Grierson's Raid (1954)
Settlers' West (1955 with Martin F. Schmitt)
The Gentle Tamers: Women of the Old Wild West (1958)
The Bold Cavaliers: Morgan's Second Kentucky Cavalry Raiders (1959)
The Galvanized Yankees (1963)
Showdown at Little Big Horn (1964)
The Year of the Century: 1876 (1966)
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970)
Fort Phil Kearny: An American Saga (1971)
Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans (1972)
The Westerners (1974)
The Fetterman Massacre (1974)
Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow (1977)
Wondrous Times on the Frontier (1991)
The American West (1994)
Great Documents in American Indian History (1995)

Novels

Wave High The Banner (1942)
Yellowhorse (1956)
Cavalry Scout (1958)
Morgan's Raiders (1959)
Showdown at Little Big Horn (1964)
The Girl from Fort Wicked (1964)
Action at Beecher Island (1967)
Creek Mary’s Blood (1980)
Killdeer Mountain (1983)
Conspiracy of Knaves (1986)
Way To Bright Star (1998)

Other works

Tales of the Warrior Ants (1973)
American Spa: Hot Springs, Arkansas (1982) - an illustrated history
Dee Brown's Folktales of the Native American: Retold for Our Times (1993)
Images of the Old West (1996)
When the Century Was Young (1993 - memories of growing up in 1920s & 1930s)

 

Source and additional information: Dee Brown