Mike Cox

Mike Cox writes books, reads books, reviews books and sells books.

He is the author of 15 non-fiction books including a two-volume history of the Texas Rangers, two collections of vintage photographs, a study of Texas disasters, three other books on the Texas Rangers, one collection of historical stories, one true crime story, a biography, a memoir and two local histories, as well as numerous magazine articles, essays and introductions for other books. He has been an elected member of the Texas Institute of Letters since 1993.

Mike’s latest work, "The Time of the Rangers: The Texas Rangers, 1900 to Present," was published by Forge Books in New York in mid-August. It is the companion to the earlier "The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900" (Forge Books, 496 pages, $25.99.) Both books have received favorable reviews and are best-sellers in the Texas, Old West and West categories.

Since 2000, Mike has written a syndicated weekly newspaper column called “Texas Tales” on interesting, little-known incidents in Texas history. In 1982 he began writing “Texana,” a Texas book review column for the Austin American-Statesman. He has written travel articles for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and for more than two years wrote a weekly column on legislative and statewide news for the Texas Press Association.

His byline regularly appears in a number of national and statewide magazines, including Texas Highways,Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine and Texas Sportsman. In addition, he has written articles and monographs for a wide variety of Texas historical associations, museums and non-profit organizations.

Mike is also an accomplished and experienced public speaker, on such topics as the Texas Rangers, free-lance writing, leadership and media relations.

He retired in the fall of 2007 as Communication Manager for the Texas Department of Transportation, where he handled media and internal relations on highways and other transportation issues.

Prior to that, he spent more than 15 years with the Texas Department of Public Safety as chief of media relations and public information officer. In between, he was Director of Member Services for the Texas Press Association.

Earlier, he was an award-winning newspaper reporter for nearly 20 years, most of that time with the Austin American-Statesman.

Mike lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Linda and daughter Hallie.

He and Linda own Saddlebag Books and specialize in selling used and rare Texana and Western Americana (www.saddlebagbooksonline.com).

Hallie, a tenth grader at a local magnet school, loves to read and writes award-winning poems and stories. She says that when she grows up, in addition to being a doctor, she wants to be a book writer just like her dad.