Dale Walker's Progress

I heard from one of my closest and most treasured friends, Dale L. Walker. He was calling from his room in an El Paso hospital, where he is recovering from open heart surgery. I was very glad to hear his voice. He is my age, and has had severe health problems, mostly pulmonary. But he was able to speak with me a few minutes today, and asked me to let our friends know he is gaining ground.

I've known him since the early eighties. He has been my editor on many occasions, and is largely responsible for my success. His discerning eye caught the weaknesses in my texts and he greatly improved everything he edited.

He had been the director of Texas Western Press at the university, but he is better known as one of the finest popular historians of our times, if not the finest. His balanced studies of many western figures are legendary. He has written valuable and successful studies of the conquest of California and the arrival of settlers into the Pacific West. These include Pacific Destiny, Bear Flag Rising, and El Dorado.

He has written widely about such things as the Spanish-American War (The Boys of '98), the pioneering war correspondent Januarius MacGahan, and Calamity Jane, and has put together numerous anthologies of western literature. His prose is transparent, grounded, lucid, and balanced. He brings keen historical judgment to his work.

He is as fine an editor as ever lived, and brought his great ability to the formidable task of turning my prose into something publishable. He is the recipient of the Owen Wister Award, and is in the Western Writers Hall of Fame.

His friends and admirers will be damned glad to know he is gaining ground. He says he has a long way to go, and it will be a tough road, but I know he will make it.