James L. Haley is the award-winning author of the Bliven Putnam Naval Adventure series, including A Darker Sea and The Shores of Tripoli, as well as numerous books on Native American, Texas, and Western history, and historical and contemporary fiction. His two biographies Sam Houston (2002) and Wolf: The Lives of Jack London (2010), each won the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America. Passionate Nation: The Epic History of Texas (2006) won the Fehrenbach Award of the Texas Historical Commission. His most recent nonfiction is Captive Paradise: A History of Hawaii (2014). James L. Haley is an American writer on Texas and Western history. He has also written several novels. Haley grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, attended L. D. Bell High School in Hurst, Texas, and graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a degree in political science. He attended the University of Texas School of Law for two years before resigning to become a full-time writer. Haley's work has garnered many awards, including two Spur Awards (2002 and 2011) from the Western Writers of America.