Harry E. Chrisman - (1906-1993)
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Campbell County High School, Wyoming
I. Professional Biography
Harry Chrisman joined the U.S. Army Infantry and served in the Army Port and Service Command in the Pacific until 1945. After the war, he attended the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York and the University of Denver. He was awarded the Alumni Achievement Award from Rochester Institute of Technology (The Chrisman Collection).
The Delta County of Colorado hired him as an ad salesman in 1947. A year later he went to Liberal, Kansas, where he sold ads for the Southwest Daily Times (Chrisman, 1001 Most asked questions About the West).
After retiring in 1965, he mover to Lakewood, Colorado, and began writing non-fiction westerns. His first book was Lost Trails of the Cimarron (1961). His last book was 1001 Questions about the American West , which came out in 1982. During his life, he worked as a horse- wrangler, a cowhand, a telephone lineman, a shipping clerk, and a salesman (Chrisman, The Ladder of Rivers). He wrote eleven books about the West and was a member of the Western Writers of America. Each of his three books placed on the Western Writers of America Rating Charts during their years of publication (The Chrisman Collection).
II. Regional Influences
Harry E. Chrisman wrote about Sheridan, Wyoming. He told stories of people treated the Indians and Mexicans in the old days. He wrote a chapter on stories about how Sheridan would have signs outside that read "No Dogs, No Mexicans, No Indians Allowed." They would treat the Indians different than all the other people (The Lost Trails of Cimarron).
III. Works Cited
Chrisman, Harry. 1001 Most-Asked Questions About the American West. Athens: Swallow Press Books, 1982.
Chrisman, Harry. The Ladder of Rivers. Athens: Swallow Press Books, 1962.
The Chrisman Collection.
Kansas State Library. 12/05/00
Lost Trails of The Cimarron.
University of Oklahoma Press. 12/05/00
http://www.ou.edu/oupress/chri3017.htm
This essay was submitted by a student of Nathel Coca, a teacher at Campbell County High School in Gillette, Wyoming.