Rick Steber has gained a well-deserved national reputation and is best known for writing honest stories about the strong people and the open landscapes of the Old West. His gift to all of us is saving the stories of people that otherwise would be lost and forgotten.

He writes and presents these stories with compassion, understanding and intensity.

Rick is the author of 27 books. He has received numerous awards and recognition for his achievements in Western literature including the Favell Museum Western Heritage Award, Benjamin Franklin Award, Mid-America Publishers Book Award, Oregon Library Association Award and was a finalist for Oregon Literary Arts Book Award. He is a member of the Western Writers of America and has served as a panelist for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) , helping set national educational standards and achievement levels in U.S. Department of Education.

Rick's work has made a significant contribution to preserving the heritage and spotlighting the great beauty of the West. Readers and reviewers have praised his unique writing style that demonstrates and empthy for his characters and a love for the land in which they live. His descriptive prose livens the senses and increases understanding of the human spirit.

Steber donates many hours visiting schools; talking to students about the importance of education, helping them develop reading and writing skills, and impressing upon them the value of saving our history for future generations.

In addition to his skill as a writer, Rick Steber is and engaging Western personality, one of a handful of writers who can make characters come alive as he tells a story. He has been the featured speaker at many national and international conferences and banquets.

Reluctant to label himself strictly as a historian, Rick says, "I'm a combination historian, biographer and storyteller. Most of all, I like to tell a good story that gives the reader a sense of time and place."

Rick writes in a cabin tucked away in the timbered folds of the Ochoco Mountains of Central Oregon. He is married to Kristi and they have two sons, Seneca and Dusty.

"Steber's writing is plain, picturesque, almost Hemingwayesque; the measure that lends dignity and understanding to the colorful past." (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

"Rick Steber captures beautifully the mood of the times and of the sturdy people who lived it." ( St. Louis Post- Dispatch)

"Steber's words remind you of Hemingway or Fitzgerald...." (LA Times)

" The stories spun by Steber prove that history can be not only interesting, but entertaining." (The Oregonian)

"Steber evokes an era that you need not have lived through to regret its passing." (Sports Illustrated)

"His (Steber's) prose is deliciously entertaining ... I shouted out passages to anyone in earshot. I simply loved it." (Gannett Westchester Newspapers)

"Rick Steber's specialty is stories of the West, tales woven from the fabric of the land. His prose deals with people, their relationship with each other and with this place. And his special gift to us is his service as a literary lifeguard -- saving stories before folks take them to their graves." (Jonathan Nicholas - The Oregonian columnist)

"Oregon author Rick Steber is rapidly becoming one of the most widely read authors of the Old West working today. His newest work, HEARTWOOD, will only entrench that reputation." (Tony Ahern - Central Oregonian)

"Nowhere is the changing West more evident than in Rick Steber's newly-released book, HEARTWOOD. It shows those gnarled old timers, full of stories, determination and fight. They are the loners in a modern society." (The Baker City Record-Courier)

"LAST OF THE PIONEERS ... is a worthy addition to the coffee table of a trail enthusiast or history buff." (Merrill Mattes - Overland Journal)

"LAST OF THE PIONEERS is a most unusual book ....A series of reminiscences by later period old-timers are fascinating, crackling with firsthand accounts of joys and heartaches, hardships and small victories, ground-breaking and going broke and generally putting the lid on the whole epic of western Oregon invasion, occupation and settlement." (Merrill Mattes - Overland Journal)

E-mail us for a current schedule of Rick Steber's appearances and presentations or simply to express your comments, suggestions or inquiries.