University of New Mexico History Professor Paul Hutton’s article, “Dreamscape Desperado: Billy the Kid and the Movies,” received the 2007 Western Heritage Award for best article. It was published in the New Mexico Historical Review, vol. 82. no. 2, Spring 2007, pages 149-196. The NMHR staff learned of the award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
“The NMHR staff and I are thrilled for Paul and the Journal. Paul’s piece, the first in-depth study of Billy the Kid’s portrayal in film, is a work of substantial scholarship and is a delight to read. Paul is a superb writer, better than any writer whose work I have edited.
"He communicates to the reader an infectious enthusiasm for his historical subject, particularly popular culture. He is like a kid in short pants gazing expectantly into a glass display cabinet stuffed with precious artifacts, in this case photographs, books, lobby cards, posters, and other materials dealing with Billy the Kid and movies about him,” Durwood Ball, NMHR editor, said.
The Western Heritage Award is the second honor won by Hutton’s “Dreamscape Desperado.” Last fall, he received the 2007 Ray Allen Billington Prize for best article from the Western History Association.
“It is a profound honor for us at the NMHR to work with a historian of Paul’s stature and to publish his work in the review,” Ball added.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu