James D. Houston

James Dudley Houston (November 10, 1933 – April 16, 2009) was an American novelist, poet and editor. He wrote nine novels and a number of non-fiction works (some co-authored and/or edited).

Houston was born in San Francisco, where his parents had migrated from Quanah, Texas, a small town named for a legendary Comanche war chief. The story behind the town's name kindled an interest in treks and quests and history. He attended Lowell High School (San Francisco) and San Jose State University. It was at San Jose State that Houston met his future wife, Jeanne Wakatsuki, whose family had immigrated to California from Japan.

Houston co-authored his wife's autobiographical memoir, Farewell to Manzanar, about her experiences in the Manzanar internment camp. The book became a bestseller after it was published in 1973.

Houston was the winner of two American Book Awards, a Joseph Henry Jackson Award for Fiction and the Humanitas Prize.

Houston's historical novel Snow Mountain Passage (2001) was inspired by a personal link to the ill-fated Donner Party of early Californian history. A second historical novel, Bird of Another Heaven (2007), explores California's beginnings, based on the story of Nani Keala, daughter of a Native American mother and Native Hawaiian father - one of a small group who went up the Sacramento River with John Sutter in 1839 and helped build the eponymous fort.

Houston died of complications of lymphoma, aged 75, in Santa Cruz, California. He is survived by his widow and their three children: Joshua Houston, Corinne Houston Traugott, and Gabrielle Houston Neville.

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