EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — Don Coldsmith, a family physician who gained fame as the author of the Spanish Bit Saga novels about the Plains Indians, has died. He was 83.
Coldsmith, 83, died Thursday at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., said his wife, Edna. She said he suffered a stroke June 20 after attending the Western Writers of America conference in Oklahoma City.
Coldsmith was the group's president in 1983-84. In 1990, he received its Spur Award for "Changing Wind," one of the Spanish Bit Saga series.
Coldsmith began work in the 1980s on the Spanish Bit Saga novels, which chronicle the momentous change in the lives of Plains Indians wrought by the introduction of the horse by Spanish explorers.
His 29th Spanish Bit Saga novel, "The Moon of Madness," is awaiting publication.
Jim Hoy, a fellow writer, lecturer and teacher at Emporia State University, said Coldsmith had a talent for connecting with his readers, even when writing about unfamiliar cultures.
The son of a Methodist minister, Coldsmith, a native of Iola, Kan., served as a combat medic in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, he was assigned to the occupation troops in Japan, where he provided medical care for accused Japanese war criminals, including Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.
He graduated from Baker University in Baldwin City and received his medical degree in 1958 from the University of Kansas. He practiced medicine in Emporia until 1988 when he closed his practice and became a full-time writer.
He wrote 40 books, plus a weekly newspaper column and many magazine articles. He was a popular lecturer on the subject of the West and its history.