Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman (1925–2008), an Albuquerque, New Mexico, resident since 1963, was the author of 29 books, including the popular 18-book mystery series featuring Navajo police officers Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, two non-series novels, two children’s books, and nonfiction works. He had received every major honor for mystery fiction; awards ranging from the Navajo Tribal Council's commendation to France 's esteemed Grand prix de litterature policiere. Western Writers of America honored him with the Wister Award for Lifetime achievement in 2008. He served as president of the prestigious Mystery Writers of America, and was honored with that group’s Edgar Award and as one of mystery fiction’s Grand Masters. In 2001, his memoir, Seldom Disappointed, won both the Anthony and Agatha Awards for best nonfiction.

Draft of The Sacred Lands


The Sacred Lands is one of the journal articles by Tony Hillerman, describing the Hopi migration and its landscape. This is published in the Arizona Highway in 1980 and in the Chicago Tribune Travel magazine in 1992. A copy of the publication is available in this Tony Hillerman Portal.

Click here to view a copy of the publication (1980)
Click here to view a copy of the publication (1992)

This is the only draft of The Sacred Lands in the collections of the Center for Southwest Research. This draft appears to be a printout from a word processing program, printed on 8.5x11" computer paper.

View Original Manuscript

Draft of Itterswiller (1998)

Itterswiller is a Tony Hillerman's autobiography published in the Appellation magazine titled Conjuring Up Itterswiller: Memories of an Alsatian Vineyard in May 1998. This articles describes the moments of World War II during his visit to Itterswiller in the Alsatian region in Germany. This is the only available manuscript available in the Center for Southwest Research.

A copy of this published article is available in the Tony Hillerman Portal.

Click here to view the copy of the published article.

This draft appears to be a printout from a word processing program, printed on 8.5x11" computer paper.

View Original Manuscript

Draft of Building Without Blueprint


Building Without Blueprint is one of the journal articles by Tony Hillerman, discussing the authorship and writing for detective novels. This is published in the Writer magazine in 1986 and republished in 2007. Both published copies of the article are available in this Tony Hillerman Portal.

Click here to view original publication (1986).
Click here to view reprinted publication (2007).

This is the only draft of Building Without Blueprint in the collections of the Center for Southwest Research. This draft appears to be a printout from a word processing program, printed on 8.5x11" computer paper.

View Original Manuscript

Subscribe to Tony Hillerman