Charles Leland Sonnichsen (September 20, 1901 – June 29, 1991) was a Benedict Professor of English at the

University of Texas, El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stude ...

. In addition to being a noted

Southwestern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

historian and

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

, he was a prolific author and screenwriter. Among his many books are ''The Mescalero

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...

s'', ''Alias Billy the Kid'' and ''Tucson: The Life and Times of an American City''. Sonichsen was the 23rd president of the Western Historical Association.

Early life and education

Born in

Fonda, Iowa Fonda is a city in Pocahontas County, Iowa, United States. The population was 636 at the time of the 2020 census. History The city of Fonda was originally called Marvin. Marvin, however, was deemed too similar to Manson, Iowa and due to mail be ...

, Sonnichsen's family later moved to

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

where he attended public school in

Wadena, Minnesota Wadena ( ) is a city in Otter Tail and Wadena counties in the State of Minnesota. It is about one hundred sixty miles northwest of the Minneapolis – Saint Paul metro area. The population was 4,325 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat ...

. He received his B.A. from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in 1924 and then went on to graduate study at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, where he received his Ph.D. in 1931.

Career

Sonnichsen first held teaching positions St. James School in

Faribault, Minnesota Faribault ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Rice County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 23,352 at the 2010 census. Faribault is approximately south of Minneapolis–Saint Paul. Interstate 35 and Minnesota State Highways ...

, and

Carnegie Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

before relocating to

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

and taking a role as associate professor of English at the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy (later

The University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...

). He rose through teaching and administrative ranks to professor, chairman of the English Department (a post he held for twenty-seven years), dean of the graduate school, and H. Y. Benedict Professor of English. He retired from the university in 1972 after a forty-one-year career there and moved to

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

, where he was editor of the Journal of Arizona History from 1972 to 1977 and continued to write and edit books.

Books

Sonnichsen authored thirty-four books, including Billy King's Tombstone (1942), Roy Bean: Law West of the Pecos (1943), Cowboys and Cattle Kings (1950), I'll Die Before I'll Run (1951), Alias Billy the Kid (1955), Ten Texas Feuds (1957), The Mescalero Apaches (1958), Tularosa: Last of the Frontier West (1960), Outlaw: Bill Mitchell, Alias Baldy Russell (1964), Pass of the North: Four Centuries on the Rio Grande (two volumes, 1968, 1980), Colonel Greene and the Copper Skyrocket (1974) and From Hopalong to Hud: Thoughts on Western Fiction (1978). In the last years of his life, he continued to publish and edited several more books: Geronimo and the End of the Apache Wars (1987), Pilgrim in the Sun: A Southwestern Omnibus (1988), and The Laughing West (1988).

Awards

Sonnichsen received the

Spur Award Spur Awards are literary prizes awarded annually by the Western Writers of America (WWA). The purpose of the Spur Awards is to honor writers for distinguished writing about the American West. The Spur awards began in 1953, the same year the WWA wa ...

for Best Short Subject, the Spur Award for Best Nonfiction, and the

Spur Award for Best Short Fiction This is a list of the works of fiction which have won the Spur Award for Best Short Fiction: * 1953 - Short Story: "Gun Job" by Thomas Thompson * 1954 - Short Story: "Blood on the Sun" by Thomas Thompson * 1955 - Short Story: "Bad Company" by S. Oma ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonnichsen, C. L. 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 1901 births 1991 deaths University of Minnesota alumni Carnegie Mellon University faculty University of Texas at El Paso faculty Harvard University alumni 20th-century American male writers