Nebraska Authors

Aughey was professor of natural science at the University of Nebraska from 1871-1883/4. He helped found the Nebraska State Historical Society and the Nebraska Academy of Sciences, serving as the Academy's first President. Although he published practical work on soils, geology and various agricultural concerns, many of his publications were more concerned with promoting settlement in Nebraska than with factual accuracy. He was a strong proponent of the "rain follows the plow" doctrine that farming the land increases the rainfall on that land, a then popular but entirely false idea. He also speculated in real estate promotions and in his own ideas about the presence of coal in Nebraska. His speculations led to a scandal in 1883 that eventually forced his resignation from the University.

The on-line Encyclopedia of the Great Plains has a longer and more detailed biographical sketch of Aughey.
The on-line history of the University of Nebraska has a page titled "Aughey's Scandals."
The Nebraska State Historical Society has hosted a page describing Aughey's contribution to the control of grasshopper infestations in the 1870s.

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McKimmey grew up mostly in Red Cloud, Nebraska and then graduated from Omaha Central High School. He attended the University of Nebraska briefly before being drafted in the Army in World War II. After the war ended, he studied at the American University at Biarritz, France, at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and the University of San Francisco. He settled in California. After selling his first short story in 1948, he related, "I cared to do nothing as an occupation except write fiction."

Kimmey wrote 17 novels and hundreds of short stories in what critics now consider the golden age of crime fiction in the 1950s and 1960s. He was much admired by fellow writers, and interest in his work has blossomed as critics have re-examined pulp fiction and crime novels of the period. Some of his work was optioned by Hollywood, but never filmed, so he remains a lesser known author of the period. Of special literary note is his correspondence, 1953-1964 with Philip K. Dick, now recognized as among the greatest of science fiction writers. The two writers were mutual admirers, and Dick shared with Kimmey his observations on writing, publishing, politics, and his own alienation and sanity. (See the article by Jason Starr, listed below)

Jason Starr, "Writing Is a Lonely Business: James McKimmey, Philip K. Dick, and the Lost Art of Author Correspondence," in Los Angeles Review of Books, November 3, 2014. (Accessed on-line)

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Grew up on the 04 Ranch (which became part of the Agate Springs Ranch) in western Nebraska and became interested in the fossils, when, as a child, he helped paleontologists dig there. Before he had finished his undergraduate degree at the University of Nebraska, the great Henry F. Osborn, of the American Museum of Natural History, who had met him while digging fossils at the ranch, convinced Cook to come to New York, take classes at Columbia University and work at the Museum. Both men agreed the goal was not a degree, but the opportunity to do important work. Harold always intended to work the ranch. While in New York, he took classes from Osborn and other leading scientists, and associated with the likes of Roy Chapman Andrews, W.D. Mathew, and R.S. Lull of Yale University. He became a distinguished paleontologist.

Cook's father was a good friend to Red Cloud, and often invited the Lakota to come down and hunt on his ranch, after they were confined to the Pine Ridge. Cook's memoir includes accounts of Red Cloud and his band, as well as various incidents related to attempts to homestead in the Sandhills region after the Kinkaid Act was passed in 1904. The Federal Government acquired land from the Cooks and established Agate Fossil Beds National Monument on the site of the old 04 ranch in 1997.

Cook married the daughter of Erwin Barbour in 1910. The two had four children but parted, and Cook married Margaret Crozier, the companion of his later years. Harold Cook was the son of Captain James Cook, who founded the Agate Springs Ranch. His memoir Tales of the 04 Ranch was written as a sequel to his father's memoir, Fifty Years on the Old Frontier, 1923. The Cooks were direct descendants of British sea captain and explorer James Cook.

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