Following stints as a Marine rifleman in the Korean War and an art director for an advertising firm, William B. Secrest started researching and writing Western history in the early 1960s. Early in his history career, Secrest realized how his home state has consistently been neglected in the Western genre and concentrated almost exclusively on early California subjects. He has produced hundreds of articles for such publications as Westways, Montana, True West, and The American West, while publishing seven monographs on early California themes.