The Martin Kansas History Book Award was created in 2018 as a tribute to Gail Lee Martin, who was KAC State Archivist from 1995-2005. Gail Lee Martin joined Kansas Authors Club in 1992 and was a member of District 5. Martin enjoyed writing fiction, nonfiction, stories for children, journalism, history, and poetry. Martin’s work was published in numerous magazines. She also published two books: Clyde Owen Martin Family Memories of His Life and Times, and My Flint Hills Childhood, which was a winner of the Ferguson Kansas History Book Award in 2010. The funding for the Martin Kansas History Book Award comes from the Gail Lee Martin Memorial established in her name. This book award is open exclusively for Kansas history.
Martin Kansas History Book Award
2023 Without Warning: The Tornado of Udall, Kansas, by Jim Minick, Rural Retreat, VA, D5
2022 Gravedigger's Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town, by Cheryl Unruh, Emporia, D2
2021 True Tales of Kansas, by Roger L. Ringer, Medicine Lodge, D6
2020 Birds, Bones, and Beetles: The Improbable Career and Remarkable
Legacy of University of Kansas Naturalist Charles D. Bunker,
by Chuck Warner, Lawrence, D2
2019 Golden Rule Days, History and Recollections of 109
Closed Kansas High Schools, by James Kenyon, Cedar Falls, Iowa, D7
2018 A Cow for College and Other Stories of 1950s Farm Life, James Kenyon, (Graham County KS) Cedar Falls, Iowa, D7
Ferguson Kansas History Book Award (2001-2017)
Award Winners
2017 Kansas Baseball: 1858-1941, Mark Eberle
2016 The Last Wild Places of Kansas, George Frazier, Lawrence, D2
2015 no award given
2014 no award given
2013 Leave No Threshing Stone Unturned, Glen Ediger, Non-KAC member
2011 Holy Ground, Healing Water: Cultural Landscapes at Waconda Lake, Kansas (Environmental History Series), Donald J. Blakeslee, Non-member, Wichita
2010 My Flint Hills Childhood: Growing up in 1930s Kansas, by Gail Lee Martin, D5.
2009 Small Town Showdown, Eileen Umbehr, Alma. D4
2008 No award.
2007 By Thy Strengthening Grace: A Brief History of the First One Hundred Years of the Bahá´í Faith in Topeka, 1906-2006, Duane L. Herrmann, Topeka, D1
2006 Gathering at the Golden Gate: Mobilizing for War in the Philippines, 1898, Stephen D. Coats, Ph.D., non-member
2005 The Lady is a Veterinarian, Lesley Ann Gentry, Beloit, D6
2004 The Secret Danites: Kansas’ First Jayhawkers, Tom Mildfelt, Richmond, non-member
2003 No award granted.
2002 Golden Age, Dust Bowl, Great Depression, Ellen May Stanley, Dighton, D7
2001 Between These Walls, Billy Q. McCray, Wichita, D5
2023 Without Warning: The Tornado of Udall, Kansas, by Jim Minick, Rural Retreat, VA, D5
2022 Gravedigger's Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town, by Cheryl Unruh, Emporia, D2
2021 True Tales of Kansas, by Roger L. Ringer, Medicine Lodge, D6
2020 Birds, Bones, and Beetles: The Improbable Career and Remarkable
Legacy of University of Kansas Naturalist Charles D. Bunker,
by Chuck Warner, Lawrence, D2
2019 Golden Rule Days, History and Recollections of 109
Closed Kansas High Schools, by James Kenyon, Cedar Falls, Iowa, D7
2018 A Cow for College and Other Stories of 1950s Farm Life, James Kenyon, (Graham County KS) Cedar Falls, Iowa, D7
Ferguson Kansas History Book Award (2001-2017)
Award Winners
2017 Kansas Baseball: 1858-1941, Mark Eberle
2016 The Last Wild Places of Kansas, George Frazier, Lawrence, D2
2015 no award given
2014 no award given
2013 Leave No Threshing Stone Unturned, Glen Ediger, Non-KAC member
2011 Holy Ground, Healing Water: Cultural Landscapes at Waconda Lake, Kansas (Environmental History Series), Donald J. Blakeslee, Non-member, Wichita
2010 My Flint Hills Childhood: Growing up in 1930s Kansas, by Gail Lee Martin, D5.
2009 Small Town Showdown, Eileen Umbehr, Alma. D4
2008 No award.
2007 By Thy Strengthening Grace: A Brief History of the First One Hundred Years of the Bahá´í Faith in Topeka, 1906-2006, Duane L. Herrmann, Topeka, D1
2006 Gathering at the Golden Gate: Mobilizing for War in the Philippines, 1898, Stephen D. Coats, Ph.D., non-member
2005 The Lady is a Veterinarian, Lesley Ann Gentry, Beloit, D6
2004 The Secret Danites: Kansas’ First Jayhawkers, Tom Mildfelt, Richmond, non-member
2003 No award granted.
2002 Golden Age, Dust Bowl, Great Depression, Ellen May Stanley, Dighton, D7
2001 Between These Walls, Billy Q. McCray, Wichita, D5