Sure that there was nothing between California and New Orleans, easterner Barbara Marriott was delighted and surprised to find a whole new beautiful world in the West and instantly became captured by its mysterious and exciting history. Her interest produced eleven fiction and nonfiction books on the historical southwest including her International book winner Paint 'N Spurs, the biography of the Cowboy Artist of America founders. Among her multi-award winning books on the southwest are In Our Own Words and Two Six Shooters Beat Four Aces, the Federal Writers Project interviews of Arizona's pioneers. Marriott also authored two books on twentieth century U.S. Navy aviation history. Her Fleet Angels is the story of the navy's helicopter program told by the men and women who flew and fly them, and The Ghost of World War II is the history of NAS Banana River, a WWII navy base.Marriott holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology, something she says has helped her understand the people and cultures she writes about. In her varied professional career she has been an advertising copywriter, a journalist, and a college professor. She created a widely read English newspaper in Nice, France, and was a Vogue Prix de Paris finalist. She is listed in Who's Who in American Women.