Dee Brown - 1908
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Campbell County High School, Gillette, Wyoming
Read another essay on Dee Brown written by Arkansas student
Amanda Scroggins.I. Biography
Dee Brown was born on February 28, 1908, in Alberta, Lousiana, to Daniel Alexander and Lula (Cranford) Brown. Today Dee Brown is 91 years old and lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, which
is where he graduated from high school in 1927. II. Professional Life When living in Arkansas he worked as a printer and occasional reporter for the Harrison Times
. He worked there for a few years before entering Arkansas State Teachers College as a history major. He paid for his education by working as a student assistant in the
college library. After attending college in Arkansas he traveled to Washington D.C. in search of employment. Finally he found a job as a "bottom of the ladder" civil service
position as an assistant in the United States Department of Agriculture Library in 1934. When in Washington he enrolled at George Washington University and obtained his
B.L.S. degree in 1935. Four years later, he was named librarian of the federal government's Beltsville Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland and he remained in that position until he
was drafted into the United States Army in 1942. When in the army he was assigned to the Eighteenth Infantry Division, but he spent most
of the next three years in special services, mainly library related tasks in the Washington D.C. area. Brown was discharged with the rank of sergeant in 1945. Dee Brown held many
librarian positions throughout his life and enjoyed working in that field. Brown actually began his writing career in the 1930s writing magazine stories to earn a little bit of extra
money. One of his stories during this time took third place in a short story contest and attracted the attention of New York literary agents. III. Regioinal Influences
Some of Dee Brown's regional influences were mostly Indians. The reason that he wrote about the Indians is because he was so interested in their lifestyles and the time period in
which they lived. He wrote about Wyoming because that is mainly where the Indians that he wrote about were from. When he wrote about the Indians in Wyoming he became very
interested and even once visited the great state. When he came to Wyoming he realized exactly what he had to write about and that is what he did. When he got back
to his home in Arkansas he was so influenced by his trip that he began the novel Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee right away. Soon after he was done with that most popular novel,
he began writing more stories about Wyoming, the Indians, and the West. It amazed him about all of the events that took place in the west and that he could use his mind to write these wonderful stories.
IV. Other Influences Some of the other writers that influenced Dee Brown were not so much people that wrote the stories, but the people who created them. Brown was a man who wanted to be an
individual, someone who wanted to do things his own way, so he did. Every time that he wrote a book and that was criticized by other authors he would listen to their remarks, but
then go out and write another novel almost the same way that he wrote the novel that was criticized. He would say that no other writers influenced him, but his grandmother did. She
was the one who told him to go out and write and have fun with it. Dee Brown was a man who listened to his elders and took all of the information that his grandmother gave to him
about the past life in the decades that he wrote about the she knew. V. Literary Works Yellow Horse VI. Works Cited
Contempory Authors, "Current Biography". Dee Brown 1979, 1983. pg 52-54 Laurence, Chollilet, Anecdotes of the West, The Record (Dergen County, NJ), 15 Jan, pp e03.
This essay was submitted by a student of Nathel Coca, a teacher at Campbell County High School in Gillette, Wyoming.
Cavalry Scout
The Girl From Fort Wicked
Action at Beecher Island
They Went Thataway
Showdown at Little Big Horn
Tales of the Warrior Ants
American Saga
American West
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Fort Apache
Past Imperfect