Robert Van Norden Hine Jr. (26 April 1921, Los Angeles – 27 March 2015, Irvine, California) was an American memoirist, historical novelist, and history professor who wrote several books.
He started college at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) but withdrew after he began to have hemorrhages in both eyes.
After graduating from Yale he published in 1953 his first book[1] and spent a year as a fellow at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.
[5]Hine put lecture notes in Braille on index cards he kept in his pocket and was so adept at fingering them that many students believed he had memorized his talks.
A friend with dramatic flair recorded quotations from Jedediah Smith, Black Elk, and other historical figures that Hine combined with slides and music for a Ken Burns-like documentary approach to history.