Sinclair, John L., 1902-1993

Writer, born in New York City, 1902.

Raised and educated in Scotland. Moved to New Mexico, 1923. Curator Lincoln County Museum, 1940-1942. Superintendent, Coronado State Monument, 1944-1962.

John L. Sinclair. Part of the John L. Sinclair Pictorial Collection PICT 000-461 (Box 1, Folder 1).

Southwestern essayist, novelist, and raconteur John L. Sinclair was born December 6, l902 in New York City. His father, Captain John Leslie Sinclair, was a Scotsman who sailed clipper ships around the world in the late l800s and later held an executive post for the Bucknall Steamship Lines; his mother was Gertrude Corbin Sinclair. After Captain Sinclair's death in l906, young John was sent to Scotland to be raised in the Scottish tradition and to be educated in private schools in England, including Beacon, Perse, and Cambridge. Although the family owned a textile business with offices in England and Ireland, as well as grazing and lumbering operations in Australia, Sinclair prepared himself for a career in agriculture. In l9l9, he was apprenticed to learn farming, fruit growing, and stock breeding on the farms of the Duke of Buccleuch at Drumlanrig Castle in Dumsfriesshire, Scotland.

In l923, Sinclair departed for Western Canada, where he was to set up a ranching operation. On the train between New York and the Northwest, however, he met a New Mexico cattleman who convinced the twenty-year-old that New Mexico, not Canada, was the place for someone interested in cattle. After spending some time in the Roswell area, Sinclair decided to settle in New Mexico as an American citizen. He was, however, denied a family-financed ranching operation, and received only a small annual allowance. For the next l4 years, Sinclair lived the life of a ranch hand, learned the lore of the West, and studied the lifestyle and vernacular of the homesteaders. Sinclair died in 1993 at age 91 in Albuquerque New Mexico.

Deciding to devote his time to both cowboy riding and writing about the Southwest, Sinclair rented a cabin in the Capitan Mountains in l928. In l933, on the advice of his friend Bill Lumpkins, he moved to Santa Fe, where he pursued writing, while making the acquaintance of local artists such as Will Shuster, Randall Davey, Alfred Morang, Fremont Ellis and B.B. Dunn. His first story was published in the pulp magazine West in l936, and a year later, his first feature story was accepted for publication by New Mexico Magazine.

Sinclair spent a year in Lincoln County and returned to Santa Fe, when, on the strength of his writing skills, he was hired by the Museum of New Mexico as a research assistant on its WPA Extension Service. The position involved preparing guides for exhibits and dioramas in the various branch museums. In l940, when the old Lincoln County Courthouse was restored for use as a branch museum, Sinclair became the curator there. For the next two years, he entertained the tourists with stories of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War (l878-l88l). He could also write to his heart's content, and during this time, he sold many articles and short stories to regional and national magazines. During the last summer on the job, he wrote his first published novel, In Time of Harvest (Macmillan Company, l943).

Following two years (l942-l944) of free-lance writing in Tucson and Santa Fe, Sinclair accepted a position as superintendent of the Coronado State Monument, a branch museum operated jointly with the University of New Mexico. His job was to meet, talk with, and guide the tourists through the ruins and into the Painted Kiva, and he continued to write. In l947, he married Evelyn Fox, a teacher he had met at the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe. As the Sinclairs worked together at the Coronado State Monument for the next fifteen years, they developed a close association with their neighbors, the Santa Ana Indians, and Evelyn continued her long-standing friendship with the Zia Indians, whom she had known since her days at the Laboratory of Anthropology.

Sinclair retired from his position with the Museum of New Mexico (and the Coronado State Monument) in l962. After spending several years in the southeastern part of the state, the Sinclairs returned to live in the Bernalillo area in l967, leasing a house near the Coronado Monument on the Santa Ana reservation. The Sinclairs lived in Albuquerque from l985 to l987, then returned to their home on the banks of the Rio Grande, with its panoramic view of the Sandia Mountains. Sinclair died in 1993.

John Sinclair has received numerous awards for his literary work. In l974, Saul Cohen ( New Mexico Magazine, March-April, l974) listed Sinclair's In Time of Harvest as one of the ten best novels about New Mexico. In l978, Sinclair was made a life member of the Cowboy Hall of Fame for his contribution to the heritage of the American West. In the same year, he received the Golden Spur award of the Western Writers of America for his article "Where the Cowboys Hunkered Down," ( New Mexico Magazine, September l977). He also has twice received the Western Heritage Wrangler Award.