T.J. Stiles

T. J. Stiles
T. J. Stiles at the 2010 Texas Book Festival.
Born	1964 Foley, Minnesota
Alma mater	Carleton College, Columbia University
Genre	Biography
Subject	American Civil War, American frontier
Notable awards	2016 Pulitzer Prize for History, 2009 National Book Award for Nonfiction, 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Biography

T. J. Stiles (born 1964 in Foley, Minnesota) is an award-winning American biographer who lives in Berkeley, California. His book The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009) won a National Book Award and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. His book Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America received the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History.

Stiles was born and raised in Foley, Minnesota, a rural farming community. He graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota with Distinction in History, and received a fellowship to study European history at Columbia University in New York, New York. After receiving a Master of Arts and a Master of Philosophy, he took a position in publishing at Oxford University Press.

In the 1990s, Stiles edited a series of anthologies of primary sources on American history. These included The Citizen's Handbook (New York: Berkley Publishing Group, 1994); In Their Own Words: Civil War Commanders (New York: Perigee Books, 1995), In Their Own Words: Warriors and Pioneers (New York: Perigee Books, 1996), In Their Own Words: Robber Barons and Radicals (New York: Perigee Books, 1997), In Their Own Words: The Colonizers (New York: Perigee Books, 1998), and In Their Own Words: Founding Fathers (New York: Perigee Books, 1999), later republished as The American Revolution. Stiles also wrote for periodicals, authoring pieces for Smithsonian, Denver Post, and the Los Angeles Times.

In 2002, Stiles published Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002). This was a widely noted reassessment of the legendary outlaw, focusing on his life and historical role, rather than his folk-culture status. Stiles argued that Jesse James won political support by depicting himself as a Confederate avenger after the Civil War, as opposed to the traditional notion that he was an anti-railroad Robin Hood figure.