Emerson Hough

Emerson Hough (June 28, 1857 – April 30, 1923) was an American writer best known for writing western stories and historical novels.

[2] He graduated from the University of Iowa with a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1880 and later studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1882.

[3] He moved to White Oaks, New Mexico, practiced law there, and wrote for the White Oaks newspaper Golden Era for a year and a half, returning to Iowa when his mother was ill.[4] He later wrote Story of the Outlaw, A Study of the Western Desperado, which included profiles of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett.

[5] He wrote for various newspapers in Des Moines, Iowa, Sandusky, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois, St. Louis, Missouri, and Wichita, Kansas.

[7] He was hired by George Bird Grinnell, the owner of Field and Stream, who founded the Audubon Society in 1886 which, along with Theodore Roosevelt's Boone and Crockett Club, was a leader in the conservation movement.

One of his projects for Forest and Stream was to survey Yellowstone National Park in midwinter 1893, with a guide and 2 soldiers from the nearby fort of the same name.

[9] Later, he and other Saturday Evening Post writers wrote a letter for Stephen Mather and George Horace Latimer to sign, advocating the creation of a national park system.

Among his historical novels, The Magnificent Adventure in 1916 was set at the time of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition and told, said one reviewer, "a good stirring tale.

[20] With L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, he created two play treatments: The Maid of Athens: A College Phantasy and The King of Gee-Whiz.

[21] He also wrote autobiographical works, such as "Getting a Wrong Start", published anonymously as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post in 1913.

[23] Hough wrote the official account of the activities of the American Protective League (APL), a voluntary organization that attempted to enforce patriotism and stifle dissent during World War I.

[27] He died in Evanston, Illinois, on April 30, 1923, a week after seeing the Chicago premiere of the movie The Covered Wagon, based on his 1922 book.

[28] North of 36, another Hough novel, later became a popular silent film as well, "making him one of the first Western authors to enter into the motion picture industry.

[30] Asked in 1918 to provide some details of his own life, he replied in the context of World War I: "This is no time for autobiography of men of letters.

The local chapter of the Izaak Walton League also bears his name, as does a street, Emerson Hough Avenue, in Lambs Grove, Iowa, a suburb of Newton.