Born and raised in Chicago, D. J. Herda worked for years at The Chicago Tribune, as well as at numerous other Chicago-area newspapers and magazines, before becoming an internationally syndicated columnist. Herda’s interest in Western Americana goes back to his childhood. He is the author of Calamity Jane: The Life and Legend of Martha Jane Cannary, The Never-Ending Lives of Liver-Eating Johnson, and Etta Place: Riding into History with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and articles for American West, Arizona Highways, and other magazines. D. J. Herda has lived in the Rocky Mountains of the southwestern United States for nearly three decades.