James Haley’s interest in writing began when he was a 5-year-old boy in Tulsa, Oklahoma; he began submitting his work to publishers while he was going to high school in Fort Worth. He experienced some early rejections, but persisted. “I had made up my mind that if I wasn’t published by age 20, I’d pursue a different career,” he recalls, but American Heritage published one of his articles just two months before the deadline. In the intervening years, he has written a dozen highly-regarded books, and says, “I’m one of the few people who have been able to make a living all my life, doing what I love.” Reflecting further, he laughs. "That is, if you call this living -- I've never had much money." He has resided in Austin since his college days.

Haley’s first published article was a biography of Jumbo, the famous 19th century circus elephant, whose size made his name into a popular adjective. “I’m an animal person,” he says. In fact, his first book (after Haley graduated from the University of Texas in Austin) was intended to be a study of buffalo hunting (Buffalo War; published in 1976 by Doubleday; it is currently available from Texas A&M University Press). Unfortunately, Haley discovered that the subject had been well covered by other authors. Fortunately, during his research he discovered the Red River Indian Uprising of 1874, which had NOT been well covered; that situation was soon rectified.

After two years of law school, Haley started on his next book, Apaches: A History and Culture Portrait, published in 1981. Once again, his work was critically acclaimed, but his next effort would become his best seller. In a departure from his previous scholarly treatises, Haley published the oversized and heavily illustrated Texas: An Album of History , which appeared in 1985 to great popularity and a 45-city Texas book tour. St. Martin's Press reprinted the volume in trade paper format, and also commissioned its sequel, Texas: From Spin ...

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