Paula M MarksPaula Mitchell Marks is a major historian of the American West whose last book, Precious Dust, won the Western Writers of America Award for the best nonfiction book of 1994. A Ph.D. in American civilization from the University of Texas, shenow serves as associate dean of the New College Program and as associate professor of American studies at St. Edward's University in Austin. Active in writers' and historical organizations, she is also a board member of the Texas Institute of Letters and a fellow of the Texas State Historical Association. She and her husband, Alan, and daughter, Carrie, live in Buda, Texas.