T.J. Stiles, called “a superb researcher” by the Washington Post, won the 2010 Pulitzer for Biography and the 2009 National Book Award for Nonfiction for The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt. His new book is Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America. A Guggenheim fellow, he has taught creative nonfiction at Columbia.