About The Author

Mary Margaret McAllen Amberson's first book began with research conducted by her grandmother, Margaret H. McAllen and her father James A. McAllen, which culminated in rave reviews for the 655-page work, I Would Rather Sleep in Texas. Noted historian and Texas A&M professor Jerry Thompson says it is the best-researched book he has ever seen from a first-time writer of history. I Would Rather Sleep in Texas won the San Antonio Conservation Society Publication Award and was a featured title at the 2003 Texas Book Festival.
Mrs. Amberson was raised on a South Texas cattle ranch belonging to her family since 1790.  As a seventh generation Texan with roots deriving from Spanish and Mexican traditions, she brings certain insights to the study of Trans-Border history, and its many vacillating phases of violence and peace. She writes the history of the region viewed though the families of South Texas and notable military, political, and community leaders. These stories are told against the backdrop of the social, economic and political history of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in English and M.A. in History from University of Texas at San Antonio, Amberson also trained with the Texas State Historical Association in compiling the New Handbook of Texas and later with Las Casas Foundation in renovating San Antonio's Majestic and Empire theaters.

In 2006, Amberson appeared on the PBS hit show "History Detectives," advising on a search for the southernmost source of the Chisholm Trail. In the episode, her father, James McAllen, also led a cattle drive across the dusty grasslands of South Texas.

Her newest book, A Brave Boy and A Good Soldier: John C. C. Hill and the Texas Expedition to Mier tells the 1842 biography of a young Texan captured in battle and later adopted by Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, president of Mexico. For school age readers and adults alike, John C. C. Hill's story remains one of the most fascinating to result from Texas struggle for independence.

• Western Writers of America, Active Member
• Board member, Texas A & M University Press
• Texas State Historical Association, Publication Committee, Advisory board, “Lone Star” magazine
  Witte Museum, Board of Directors