On the Plains With Custer and Hancock: The Journal of Isaac Coates, Army Surgeon

"A keen observer, [Dr. Coates] recorded critical events of the so-called ‘Hancock’s War’ with the Southern Plains tribes. His vignettes of key personalities are especially enlightening. Kennedy’s commentary and annotation fill out a story that adds greatly to the literature of the Plains Indian frontier of the 1860s. —Robert M. Utley

W.J.D. Kennedy retired as executive director of ACCORD Associates, a nonprofit conflict management organization. He has written numerous articles about conflict management for professional journals and is co-author (with Susan Carpenter) of "Managing Public Disputes."

Mr. Kennedy received a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from Harvard College, and later was a member of the 10th Mountain Division during World War II. While living in St. Paul, Minnesota, he served on the Minnesota Human Rights Commission and as chairman of a Governor’s Indian Action Committee.

Mr. Kennedy lives in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, Lucretia, who is Isaac Coates’s great granddaughter. "On the Plains with Custer and Hancock" is the result of five years of research.