James Dudley Houston (November 10, 1933 – April 16, 2009) was an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

, poet and editor. He wrote nine novels and a number of non-fiction works (some co-authored and/or edited).

Early life

Houston was born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, where his parents had migrated from

Quanah, Texas Quanah is a city in and the county seat of Hardeman County, Texas, Hardeman County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census the population was 2,641, down from 3,022 at the 2000 United States Census, 2000 census. Q ...

, a small town named for the noted last Comanche war chief,

Quanah Parker Quanah Parker (Comanche ''kwana'', "smell, odor") ( – February 23, 1911) was a war leader of the Kwahadi ("Antelope") band of the Comanche Nation. He was likely born into the Nokoni ("Wanderers") band of Tabby-nocca and grew up among the Kwah ...

. The story behind the town's name kindled Houston's interest in treks and history. He graduated from Lowell High School. He did college studies at

San José State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

and Stanford University. At San José State, Houston met Jeanne Wakatsuki, his future wife. Her family had immigrated to California from Japan.

Literary career

Houston co-authored his wife's autobiographical memoir, ''

Farewell to Manzanar ''Farewell to Manzanar'' is a memoir published in 1973 by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. The book describes the experiences of Jeanne Wakatsuki and her family before, during, and following their relocation to the Manzanar inte ...

'', about her family's experiences in the

Manzanar Manzanar is the site of one of ten American concentration camps, where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II from March 1942 to November 1945. Although it had over 10,000 inmates at its peak, it was one ...

internment camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

during World War II. The book became a bestseller after it was published in 1973. Houston was the winner of two

American Book Awards The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...

, a Joseph Henry Jackson Award for Fiction and the

Humanitas Prize The Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing, and is given to writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced and meaningful way. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser—also the founder of Paulist P ...

. Houston's historical novel ''Snow Mountain Passage'' (2001) was inspired by a personal link to the ill-fated

Donner Party The Donner Party, sometimes called the Donner–Reed Party, was a group of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound in th ...

of early Californian history. A second historical novel, ''Bird of Another Heaven'' (2007), explores California's beginnings, based on the history of Nani Keala, daughter of a Native American mother and

Native Hawaiian Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, First Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians) ( haw, kānaka, , , and ), are the indigenous ethnic group of Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawa ...

father. She was one of a small group who went up the Sacramento River with

John Sutter John Augustus Sutter (February 23, 1803 – June 18, 1880), born Johann August Sutter and known in Spanish as Don Juan Sutter, was a Swiss immigrant of Mexican and American citizenship, known for establishing Sutter's Fort in the area th ...

in 1839 and helped build the eponymous fort..

Works

* ''Between Battles'' (1968) * ''Gig'' (1969) * ''A Native Son of the Golden West'', Ballantine Books (1972) * ''

'', with Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston (1972) * ''An Occurrence At Norman's Burger Castle'' (1972) * ''The adventures of Charlie Bates'' (1973) * ''Three Songs for My Father'' (1974) * ''Continental Drift'' (1978) * ''California Heartland: Writing from the Great Central Valley'', with Gerald W. Haslam (1978) * ''West Coast Fiction: Modern Writing from California, Oregon, and Washington'', editor (1979) * ''Gasoline: The automotive adventures of Charlie Bates'' (1980) * ''Californians: Searching for the Golden State'' (1982) * ''One Can Think About Life After the Fish Is in the Canoe: And Other Coastal Sketches/Beyond Manzanar: Views of Asian-American Womanhood'', with Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston (1985) * ''Love Life'' (1985) * ''The Men in My Life: And Other More or Less True Recollections of Kinship'' (1987) * ''Surfing : the sport of Hawaiian kings'' (1996) * ''In the Ring of Fire: A Pacific Basin Journey (1997) * ''Farewell to Manzanar with Connections'', with Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston (1998) * ''The Last Paradise (Literature of the American West)'' (1998) * ''Snow Mountain Passage'' (2001) * ''The Literature of California, Volume 1: Native American Beginnings to 1945'', editor (2001) * ''Hawaiian Son'', with Eddie Kamae (2004) * ''Bird of Another Heaven'' (2007) * ''Where Light takes its Color From the Sea'' (2008) * ''A Queen's Journey'' (2011)

Death

Houston died of complications of

lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enla ...

, aged 75, in

Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz ( Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a po ...

References

External links

* . * * . * . {{DEFAULTSORT:Houston, James D. 1933 births 2009 deaths 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists Deaths from cancer in California Deaths from lymphoma Writers from Santa Cruz, California Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area San Jose State University alumni American male novelists American Book Award winners 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers