About the Author

John Clayton is an independent journalist, essayist, and business writer based in Montana. John's articles appear regularly in the Montana Quarterly,  Horizon Air, and dozens of regional newspapers through the Writers on the Range syndicate. (Read more about John's articles here.)

John's new book, The Cowboy Girl, is a biography of the Montana/Wyoming novelist, journalist, and homesteader Caroline Lockhart. (Read more about the book here.) It relies on archival materials not available to Lockhart's previous biographers. John's research -- in Cody, Lovell, Billings, the Dryhead, Laramie, Helena, Kansas, Illinois, Boston, and Glacier National Park -- was supported by grants from the Montana Committee for the Humanities and the Matthew Hansen endowment at the University of Montana.

John's work for the business world includes ghostwritten white papers, case studies, newsletter articles, and online help files for several leading information and high-tech companies. John especially enjoys bringing his fascination with narrative structure to the communication needs of business executives. (Read more about John's business writing here.)

Previously, John wrote the lifestyle advice book Small Town Bound and has contributed to several other books. He has taught at Rocky Mountain College and is on the advisory board for the Montana Center for the Book. (One of his favorite annual events is the Montana Festival of the Book in Missoula.) He speaks about Lockhart, writing, and the West at libraries, conferences, and other events.

In his spare time John enjoys basketball, hiking, telemark skiing, home-brewing, and of course reading.

John was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, in 1964. He graduated from Williams College, and lived in the Boston area for several years before moving west in 1990. He lives with his wife and their dog (that's the late Aretha Franklin in the picture above, dated 2001) in a small town in central Montana.