Born and raised in Chicago, D. J. Herda worked for years at The Chicago Tribune, as well as at numerous other Chicago-area newspapers and magazines, before becoming an internationally syndicated columnist. Herda’s interest in Western Americana goes back to his childhood. His fascination with Calamity Jane stretches back to his earliest recollections, and he has been researching her life for decades, convinced that one day he would chronicle the story of the real Martha Jane Cannary in a book. D. J. Herda has lived in the Rocky Mountains of the southwestern United States for nearly three decades.