Nebraska Authors

Known professionally as C.W. Anderson, he was an author and illustrator of children's books. Anderson had an interest in horses and drawing. When he wasn't out riding horses, he was drawing them, taking great interest in their bone structure and conformation. Anderson started his career by illustrating for other authors, but eventually began developing texts to accompany his realistic and lively black and white drawings. He is best known for his Billy and Blaze book series. The adventures of Billy and Blaze revolve around proper care of the horse, while teaching a lesson. Anderson would go to great lengths to give accurate information. He would even go on to write Heads Up, Heels Down as a training tool for young horse lovers. All of the stories Anderson wrote would be based on true stories or people that he knew; only the plots were fictitious. By the end of Anderson's life, he had written and illustrated over thirty-five horse books, and had also created covers for the Saturday Evening Post.

Read More

Known to friends as a dry wit, Olson had distinguished careers as a historian and, later in life, as a university administrator. Olson served as a historian for the United States Army Air Forces in the Pacific Theater in World War II. After the war, from 1946-1956, he served as Director of the Nebraska State Historical Society and taught at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where he would later serve as Regents Professor of History, chair of the Department of History, dean of the Graduate College, director of Graduate Program Development, and vice chancellor for Graduate Studies and Research. His biography of J. Sterling Morton, his first book, was derived from his Ph.D dissertation at the University of Nebraska. He was also the author of the widely adopted school and reference text Nebraska History which first appeared in 1955, but has been kept up-todate in revised additions, with collaborators.

In 1968, after some hesitation, Olson accepted a position as chancellor of the University of Missouri–Kansas City. From 1976 to 1984 he would serve as chancellor of the University of Missouri system. While at Missouri, he wrote several books on university administration, and a very well received biography of (William) Stuart Symington, Democratic United States Senator from Missouri (1953-1976), first Secretary of the Air Force and one of the twentieth century's most influential political figures.

dsc

Read More

The artist grew up on the Mignery ranch near Bartlett, Nebraska, where his family has ranched for over 100 years. It was assumed he would be a rancher, but instead his childhood interest in drawing led him into a career in art. He was employed as an illustrator in the army and on leaving the army in 1963, he began a career in commercial art. He would pursue a parallel career in the fine arts, and eventually he devoted himself entirely to the fine arts. An experiment with casting bronze sculpture in 1973 led him to pursue a career as a sculptor. His knowledge of working ranch life and his interest in the history of the West have guided his very successful career as a sculptor in bronze, specializing in working cowboys, ranch hands and their horses. He has numerous bronzes in private, corporate and public collections around the country. Some of his sculptures may be seen in Central Park Mall in Omaha, and he has also donated bronzes to the town of Bartlett, Wheeler County, Nebraska. His sculpture for the Neihardt Center in Bancroft Nebraska shows the poet John Neihardt taking notes during his interviews with Black Elk on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1931.

Mignery continues to draw, with works including book illustrations, calendar artwork, greeting cards and other media, and a series of comic cowboy cartoons that have appeared regularly in Western Horseman magazine since 1985.

Heritage Room collections include a small bronze by Mignery, "The Blizzard of '88."

dsc

Read More