Paul George Vincent O'Shaughnessy Horgan (August 1, 1903 – March 8, 1995) was an American writer of historical fiction and non-fiction who mainly wrote about the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...

. He was the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes for History. Historian David McCullough wrote of Horgan in 1989: "With the exception of

Wallace Stegner Wallace Earle Stegner (February 18, 1909 – April 13, 1993) was an American novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and historian, often called "The Dean of Western Writers". He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 and the U.S. National Boo ...

, no living American has so distinguished himself in both fiction and history."

Biography

Paul Horgan was born in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

on August 1, 1903. After his father contracted tuberculosis, the family moved in 1915 to

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding i ...

for health reasons. Horgan attended New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico, where he formed a lifelong friendship with classmate and future artist

Peter Hurd Peter Hurd (February 22, 1904 – July 9, 1984) was an American painter whose work is strongly associated with the people and landscapes of San Patricio, New Mexico, where he lived from the 1930s. He is equally acclaimed for his portraits and his ...

. In 1922, Horgan befriended physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1922 during a visit to

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...

. After finishing high school, Horgan spent a year working for a local newspaper. In 1923, Horgan enrolled in the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music ...

in Rochester, New York, but dropped out after the first year. He worked for the next three years in Rochester as the set designer for a new opera company being started by tenor

Vladimir Rosing Vladimir Sergeyevich Rosing (russian: Владимир Серге́евич Розинг) (November 24, 1963), also known as Val Rosing, was a Russian-born operatic tenor and stage director who spent most of his professional career in the United ...

. Although Horgan had never designed sets before, he convinced Rosing to give him the job. The fledgling opera company later became the American Opera Company.Horgan, Paul. Encounters with Stravinsky (1972) pp. 44-47. Farrar Straus and Giroux, New York. In 1924, Horgan returned to Albuquerque. He published his first novel, ''The Fault of Angels'', about his experiences in Rochester in 1933; it won the Harper Prize. He continued to write 17 novels plus other works over the next five decades. Horgan served as president of the American Catholic Historical Association During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Horgan moved to Washington, D.C. to served as the head of the Army Information Branch of the

US War Department The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, a ...

. He would eventually receive the

Legion of Merit The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. The decoration is issued to members of the eight u ...

and be promoted to lieutenant colonel. He received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

in 1947. In 1955, Horgan won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Bancroft Prize for history with '' Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History,'' a history of the Rio Grande River in Mexico and the United States. In 1959, Horgan became a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS)at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Over the next 35 years, he would serve as a director of CAS, an adjunct professor of English, and as a

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

and permanent author-in-residence. The author Charles Barber served as a personal assistant to Horgan when Barber was a college student. During this period, Horgan also taught seminars and workshops at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

and the University of Iowa. In 1976, Horgan won the Pulitzer Prize for History for ''

Lamy of Santa Fe ''Lamy of Santa Fe'' is a 1975 biography of Catholic Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy, written by American author Paul Horgan and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The book won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for History The Pulitzer Prize for Histo ...

'' (Wesleyan University Press), a biography of Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy. Horgan published 40 books and received 19 honorary degrees from universities in the United States. He received a

papal knighthood The orders, decorations, and medals of the Holy See include titles, chivalric orders, distinctions and medals honoured by the Holy See, with the Pope as the fount of honour, for deeds and merits of their recipients to the benefit of the Holy ...

from Pope Pius XII. Paul Horgan died at Middlesex County Hospital in Middletown, Connecticut, on March 8, 1995.

Literary works

In 1970, Horgan started his "Heroic Triad" of novels, about the different cultures in the Southwest, with the publication of ''Whitewater.'' It was followed by ''Thin Mountain Air'' in 1977 and ''Mexico Bay'' in 1982. One of Horgan's most popular works was ''A Distant Trumpet'', a historical novel based on the

Apache wars The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States Army and various Apache tribal confederations fought in the southwest between 1849 and 1886, though minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924. After the Mexi ...

in the Southwest. Horgan's 1972 book ''Encounters With Stravinsky,'' a biography of composer Igor Stravinsky, was called "an utterly irresistible book" by ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' reviewer Simon Karlinsky. In 1960, author Robert Franklin Gish praised Horgan's literary contributions in the

monograph A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monogra ...

''Paul Horgan: Yankee Plainsman'' ''and a few other works''.

Fiction

*''The Fault of Angels'' (1933) *''No Quarter Given'' (1935) *''The Return of the Weed'' (1936) short stories *''Main Line West'' (1936) *''A Lamp on the Plains'' (1937) *''Far from Cibola'' (1938) *''The Habit of Empire'' (1939) *''Figures in the Landscape'' (1940) *''The Common Heart'' (1942) *''Devil in the Desert'' (1950) *''Things As They Are'' (1951) *''One Red Rose for Christmas'' (1952) *''The Saintmaker's Christmas Eve'' (1955) (translated into German by Annemarie Böll as "Weihnachtsabend in San Cristobal") *''Give Me Possession'' (1957) *''A Distant Trumpet'' (1960) *''Mountain Standard Time'' (1962) contains ''Main Line West'', ''Far from Cibola'', and ''The Common Heart'' *''Toby and the Nighttime'' (1963) juvenile *''Memories of the Future'' (1966) *''The Peach Stone: Stories from Four Decades'' (1967) short stories *''Everything to Live For'' (1968) *''Whitewater'' (1970) *''The Thin Mountain Air'' (1977) *''Mexico Bay'' (1982) *''The Clerihews of Paul Horgan'' (1985) light verse *''The Richard Trilogy'' (1990) contains ''Things As they Are'', ''Everything to Live For'', and ''The Thin Mountain Air''

Nonfiction

*''Men of Arms'' (1931) *''From the Royal City'' (1936) *''New Mexico's Own Chronicle'' (with historian Maurice Garland Fulton) (1937) *''Diary and Letters of Josiah Gregg, 1840-1847'' (1941) *''Look at America: The Southwest'' (1947) *''Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History'' (1951) *''The Centuries of Santa Fe'' (1956) *''Rome Eternal'' (1959) *''Citizen of New Salem'' (1961) *''Conquistadors in North American History'' (1963) *''Songs After Lincoln'' (1965) *''Peter Hurd: A Portrait Sketch from Life'' (1965) about the painter Peter Hurd *''Maurice Baring Restored'' (editor) (1969) about the poet Maurice Baring *''The Heroic Triad. Essays in the Social Energies of Three Southwestern Cultures'' (1970) *''Encounters with Stravinsky'' (1972) about the composer Igor Stravinsky *''Approaches to Writing'' (1974) *''Lamy of Santa Fe: His Life and Times'' (1975) about Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy *''Josiah Gregg and His Vision of the Early West'' (1979) about the explorer Josiah Gregg *''Henriette Wyeth'' (1980) about the painter Henriette Wyeth *''On the Climate of Books'' (1981) essays *''Of America: East & West'' (1984) *''Under the Sangre de Cristo'' (1985) *''A Certain Climate'' (1988) essays *''A Writer's Eye'' (1988) *''Tracings: A Book of Partial Portraits'' (1993)

Notes

External links

Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia entryexcerpt from ''A Literary History of the American West''
by Robert Franklin Gish
American Catholic Historical Association – Past Presidents and Vice-Presidents
* * Paul Horgan Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Horgan, Paul 1903 births 1995 deaths Eastman School of Music alumni Writers from Buffalo, New York Pulitzer Prize for History winners Catholic University of America people Wesleyan University faculty Laetare Medal recipients 20th-century American historians 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers American male novelists American male short story writers 20th-century American male writers Novelists from Connecticut Novelists from New York (state) American male non-fiction writers Historians from New York (state) Bancroft Prize winners