Richard W. Etulain was professor of history and director of the Center for the American West at the University of New Mexico from 1979 to 2001. He is now a full-time researcher and writer residing in Portland, Oregon, specializing in the history and literature of the American West. He has written or edited forty books, including The American West: A Twentieth-Century History (1989, coauthored with Michael P. Malone); Re-Imagining the Modern American West (1996); Researching Western History (1997, coedited with Gerald D. Nash); Telling Western Stories (1999); The Hollywood West (2001, coedited with Glenda Riley); New Mexican Lives: A Biographical History (editor, 2002); and Beyond the Missouri: The Story of the American West (2006), and editor of Lincoln Looks West (editor, 2010). He is also editor of Does the Frontier Experience Make America Exceptional? ( Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999) and Cesar Chavez: A Brief Biography with Documents (2002). He has served as president of both the Western Literature and Western History associations.