Tony Hillerman was born in Sacred Heart, Oklahoma in 1925. After he graduated from high school, he enlisted in the Army and went on to be awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. After the Army, he went to the University of Oklahoma and received his Bachelor of Arts degree. He moved to the Southwest in 1963 and went to the University of New Mexico to get his Master’s Degree in English. He taught at this University until 1987.
While living in New Mexico, he became interested in the culture of the Navajo Indians. When he started writing books, his first one was about the Navajo’s. His books were always mysteries and two of his favorite characters from 18 of his books were Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. These two characters were tribal police offices that he invented to solve the crimes he wrote about. These two were quite the odd pair but the fans loved them. And it kept the sales for his books very high. The Navajo’s liked Hillerman writing about them because he had a way of being respectful of their lifestyle. As they encouraged Hillerman to write about them, he was able to get more detailed information and research for his books.
The first agent Hillerman had told him to ditch the Indian stuff after she had read his first manuscript as she didn’t think that they would sell any books. But Hillerman persisted with a new agent and it paid off big time. When he died in 2008 at the age of 83, he was ranked the 22nd wealthiest man in New Mexico.
