Tucson Festival of Books

When Fact Becomes Legend


Megan Kate Nelson, author of “The Westerners,” Peter Cozzens, author of “Deadwood,” and Paul Andrew Hutton, author of “The Undiscovered Country,” discuss the myth and the reality of the American West.


Panelists
Peter Cozzens

Peter Cozzens is the author of "Deadwood" and 18 other acclaimed books on the American Civil War, Indigenous history, and the American West. Cozzens is the recipient of the American Foreign Service Association's highest honor, the William R....

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Paul Hutton

An American cultural historian, documentary writer, and television personality, Paul Andrew Hutton is also Distinguished Professor of History emeritus at the University of New Mexico. The author of "The Undiscovered Country," Hutton was the former executive director of the Western History Association and past president of the Western Writers of America....

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Megan Kate Nelson

Born and raised in Colorado, Megan Kate Nelson is a writer and historian based in Boston. Her most recent book is "The Westerners." She has written about US western history, the Civil War, and American culture for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Smithsonian Magazine....

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Books:
Deadwood
Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West
Peter Cozzens
History / Biography
Random House
August 2025
ISBN 9780593537855
Hardcover, 432 pages
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The Undiscovered Country
Triumph, Tragedy, and the Shaping of the American West
Paul Hutton
History / Biography
Penguin Group
August 2025
ISBN 9781524746131
576 pages
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The Undiscovered Country strips away the layers of myth to reveal the true story of this first epoch of American history. More/less

The Westerners
Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier
Megan Kate Nelson
History / Biography
Scribner
March 2026
ISBN 9781668004340
448 pages
Buy now