Emerson Hough (1857-1923) was an American author, best known for writing western stories. Hough graduated from the University of Iowa with a law degree. He moved to White Oaks, New Mexico, and practiced law there but eventually turned to literary work by taking camping trips and writing about them for publication. He is best known as a novelist, writing The Mississippi Bubble (1902) as well as The Covered Wagon (1922). Hough was also a conservationist, and was the catalyst behind a law passed by the U. S. Congress to protect the buffalo in Yellowstone National Park. His other works include The Singing Mouse Stories (1895), The Girl at the Halfway House (1900), The Law of the Land (1904), Heart's Desire (1905), The Way of a Man (1907), 54- 40 or Fight (1909), The Purchase Price (1910), The Man Next Door (1917), The Passing of the Frontier (1918) and The Sagebrusher (1919).