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'54-40 or Fight' is the first book in a trilogy by Emerson Hough. The next two books in the trilogy are Purchase Price and John Rawn. The title references the expansion of the United States that President James K. Polk called for. The expansion was to include Texas, California, and the Oregon territory. Since the northern boundary of Oregon was the latitude line of 54 degrees, 40 minutes, "fifty-four forty or fight!" became a popular slogan. The book was dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt. 54-40 or Fight was a financial success.
Emerson Hough was an American author best known for writing western stories and historical novels.Emerson Hough (1857-1923) was an American author best known for writing western stories and historical novels.Career Hough was born in Newton, Iowa on June 28, 1857. He was in Newton High School's first graduating class of three in 1875. He graduated from the University of Iowa with a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1880 and later studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1882. His first article, "Far From The Madding Crowd," was published in Forest and Stream in 1882.He moved to White Oaks, New Mexico, practiced law there, and wrote for the White Oaks newspaper Golden Era for a year and a half, returning to Iowa when his mother was ill.He later wrote Story of the Outlaw, A Study of the Western Desperado, which included profiles of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett. Hough moved to New Mexico after Garrett shot Billy the Kid, and he became a friend of Garrett.He wrote for various newspapers in Des Moines, Iowa, Sandusky, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois, St. Louis, Missouri, and Wichita, Kansas.In 1889 he got a position as western editor of Forest and Stream, editing the "Chicago and the West" column.He was hired by George Bird Grinnell, the owner of Field and Stream, who founded the Audubon Society in 1886 which, along with Theodore Roosevelt's Boone and Crockett Club, was a leader in the conservation movement. Hough was also a conservationist. One of his projects for Forest and Stream was to survey Yellowstone National Park in midwinter 1893, with a guide and 2 soldiers from the nearby fort of the same name. There were supposed to be more than 500 buffalo there, but their count barely reached 100. Due to Hough's report, eastern newspapers took up the cause against poaching, and in May 1894 the U.S. Congress passed a law making poaching of game in national parks a punishable offense.Later, he and other Saturday Evening Post writers wrote a letter for Stephen Mather and George Horace Latimer to sign, advocating the creation of a national park system. The National Park Service was created in 1916.In addition, he was a co-founder of the Izaak Walton League, an organization of outdoorsmen, in 1922.He wrote the "Out-of-Doors" column for the Saturday Evening Post and these columns later appeared in book form.
Emerson Hough (June 28, 1857 - April 30, 1923) wrote westerns and historical novels. His tales about the Oregon Trail, The Mississippi Bubble and The Covered Wagon, were successfully adapted for film.
