Louis Kraft became interested in the West in the 1970s; in particular he became interested in people who didn’t speak the same language but who were able to work out their differences without killing each other. To understand these people and the land they inhabited, he immersed himself in their struggle for survival. In the mid-1980s he began writing and lecturing about them. THE FINAL SHOWDOWN (Walker and Company, 1992) explores racial relations in 1867 Kansas; CUSTER AND THE CHEYENNE: GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER’S WINTER CAMPAIGN ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS (Upton and Sons, 1995) follows Custer’s 1868–1869 winter campaign on the Southern Plains; and GATEWOOD & GERONIMO (University of New Mexico Press, 2000) examines the relationship between the two pre-eminent warriors of the last Apache war. Not finished with Gatewood, Kraft pieced together and edited the lieutenant’s aborted attempt to write about his years walking among the Apaches--LT. CHARLES GATEWOOD & HIS APACHE WARS MEMOIR (University of Nebraska Press, 2005).
Although Kraft had written plays earlier in his career, he had shied away from the format until 2002 when his one-man historical drama on Cheyenne Indian agent Edward Wynkoop premiered in Kansas. It has since played in California and Colorado (AN EVENING WITH NED WYNKOOP has evolved into NED WYNKOOP: A MATTER OF CONSCIENCE).
Kraft continues to research, write, and lecture about Custer, Gatewood, and Wynkoop, as well swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn. He is currently under contract with the University of Oklahoma Press to deliver a manuscript on Wynkoop’s Indian years in December 2007. Other projects include a full-length play that deals with Wynkoop’s stormy relationship with the Cheyennes during the 1860s and a book on Flynn and his working relationship with actress Olivia de Havilland.
Kraft lives in North Hollywood, California, and spends all his free time with the ladies in his life: sweetheart and best friend Diane Moon and daughter Marissa Kraft.