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Richard Etulain

Richard Etulain received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in 1966 with a dissertation--and now a published book--on the Oregon historical novelist Ernest Haycox. More recently, he has researched and written about several Oregon figures, particularly literary, cultural, and political men and women. Of his more than fifty authored or edited books, most focus on western or northwestern subjects, especially cultural, religious, and political history. He has also authored books on Abraham Lincoln and the West and edited books dealing with the Basques of the Pacific Northwest. His latest book, coauthored with Glenda Riley, Presidents Who Shaped the American West, appeared in 2018. His two books on Billy the Kid will be published in 2020.  He also has forthcoming a book on Abraham Lincoln and Mount Rushmore and another on Oregon political thinker William S. U'Ren.  He is currently working on a political biography of Mark Hatfield, Oregon governor and senator.

Author's Entries

  • Basques

    The first Basques to Oregon arrived in the late 1880s. These Euskaldunak, or newcomers, usually migrated north and east from Nevada and California, often as sheepherders, and settled in the southeast corner of the state. The number of Basques continued to expand in eastern Oregon into the 1920s and 1930s, …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Edward Baker (1811-1861)

    Edward "Ned" D. Baker, who was born in London, England, on February 24, 1811, immigrated with his family to the United States at age five. When he was a teenager, his parents moved to Illinois, where Ned Baker later read law. At twenty, he married twenty-two-year-old Mary Ann Lee, a …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Election of 1860

    The presidential election of 1860 was a turning point in Oregon political history. Oregon had become a state in 1859, and it was the first national election in which Oregonians participated. The election also increased the visibility of the Republican Party in the state and introduced far-western residents to Abraham …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Ernest Haycox (1899-1950)

    Ernest Haycox was an important figure in the development of the popular Western. Diligent, prolific, and ambitious, he wrote twenty-four novels, nearly three hundred short stories and serial installments, and dozens of essays. In the 1930s and 1940s, he may have been Oregon's most widely acclaimed author of magazine fiction. …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Oregon Literature (1814-1920) (essay)

    The first literature of Oregon followed patterns typical of most other regions of the United States. From the earliest Indian stories to the romantic novels and narratives at the end of the nineteenth century, Oregon writers mimicked the literary output of earlier American subregions. Much of this literature spoke of coming …

    Oregon Encyclopedia

  • Oregon Literature (1920-Present) (essay)

    The joint appearance in 1927 of the controversial pamphlet Status Rerum by writers H.L. Davis and James Stevens and the new regional magazine Frontier edited by H.G. Merriam signaled a notable transition in the literary history of Oregon. These two publications pointed to—even denounced—the inadequacy of Oregon and Pacific Northwest …

    Oregon Encyclopedia