North of 36 — Emerson Hough

Hough (1857-1923) was an American author best known for writing western stories and historical novels. He was born in Newton, Iowa and graduated from the University of Iowa with a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1880. He later studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1882. He moved to White Oaks, New Mexico for a while, where he practiced law and wrote for the Golden Era newspaper, before returning to Iowa and writing for various papers in that state and in Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas. In 1889 he took on the post of western editor on the Forest and Stream, editing the Chicago and the West column. As an ardent conservationist, one of his projects for Forest and Stream was to survey Yellowstone National Park in midwinter 1893 and as a result of his report siting the diminishing number of buffalo US Congress passed a law against game poaching in national parks. He later wrote the Out-of-Doors column for the Saturday Evening Post which were then collected and published in book form. The Mississippi Bubble, Hough's first bestseller, was published in 1902, followed by a number of successful westerns and works of historical fiction covering such subjects as the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Several of his works were adapted for film, including North of 36 which was first published in 1923.