Dee Brown (novelist)

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For other persons named Dee Brown, see Dee Brown

Dee Brown (February 29,1908---December 12, 2002) was an American novelist and historian. His most famous work is Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, published in 1970, detailing the violent relationship between Native Americans and American expansionism. This work led to further appreciation 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.

Born in Alberta, Louisiana, Brown grew up in Ouachita County, Arkansas and Little Rock, Arkansas, 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 War Department 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.

Sources

Washington Post Saturday, December 14, 2002
The Economist, December 21, 2002

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