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Award winning author Robert Lee Murphy grew up in Hobbs, New Mexico, before graduating from the University of Oklahoma in 1960. Following college, he served in the U. S. Army for seven years, departing active duty with the rank of captain. For the next thirty-six years he pursued a business career that involved working with national and international institutions on all seven continents, including Antarctica, where Murphy Peak bears his name in recognition of his contributions in supporting polar science.
He sold his first magazine article, illustrated with his own photographs, to Backpacker Magazine many years ago. Throughout his business career, he published various technical articles in trade journals, such as Military Engineer. In July 2011, The Gettysburg Magazine published his annotated Civil War cavalry article about the "boy generals." The April 2017 issue of Roundup Magazine contained his article "Union Pacific's Wild West Show." The April 2019 issue of Roundup Magazine contained two of his articles: "Races Within a Race: The Building of the First Transcontinental Railroad" and "Henry Morton Stanley and the West." The "Races Within a Race" article was selected as a finalist for the Western Writers of America Stirrup Award for 2020.
Robert has been an avid outdoorsman, railroad aficionado, and history buff his entire life. In conducting research for his trilogy, The Iron Horse Chronicles, Robert traveled the route of the railroad, from Omaha, Nebraska, to Sacramento, California, visited the museums and historical sites along the way, and walked the ground where the characters' actions take place.
Eagle Talons, the first book in The Iron Horse Chronicles trilogy, was awarded the 2015 Bronze Will Rogers Medallion. Bear Claws, book two in the trilogy, won the Wyoming State Historical Society first place award in the Publications Category Fiction for 2016. Bear Claws also was awarded the 2016 Silver Will Rogers Medallion Award. Golden Spike, the concluding book in the trilogy, received the 2018 Silver Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction for Younger Readers.
Robert's latest historical novel, Bozeman Paymaster: A Tale of the Fetterman Massacre, has been acquired by Five Star Publishing with an anticipated release date in mid-2022. Reminiscent of the Taliban prevailing in Afghanistan, Bozeman Paymaster is the story of how in the nation’s drive to advance Manifest Destiny it blundered into one of its most destressing reverses. On a bone-chilling day in December 1866, Captain William Fetterman led eighty men into the Army’s worst defeat at the hands of the Indians until Custer’s Last Stand a decade later. The story of this debacle is told through the eyes of a youthful paymaster clerk who falls in love with a beautiful young schoolteacher at Fort Phil Kearny, located in present-day Wyoming. The future of the young couple is torn asunder when in the aftermath of the Fetterman Massacre the United States abandons the forts protecting the Bozeman Trail, closing the shortest route used by immigrants to reach Montana’s goldfields. Red Cloud’s War was the only war the American Indians won fighting the U. S. Army.
You are invited to visit https://robertleemurphy.net where you can read sample chapters from Robert's writing. Also, click on the Blog Feed below to see the latest blogs from Robert.
Robert is a member of Western Writers of America, Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators, Sun City Anthem Authors, Historical Novel Society, Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, Wyoming State Historical Society, and Fort Phil Kearny/Bozeman Trail Association.
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