Peggy Samuels, 84; writer specialized in art and history of the West

Peggy Samuels, 84, who turned her curiosity about the history and art of the Western U.S. into a writing career, died Thursday at her home in East Falmouth, Mass., the New York Times reported. The cause of death was not given.

Samuels and her husband, Howard, were art collectors and dealers who wrote and edited books on art and history, including an authoritative biography of realist painter and sculptor Frederic Remington.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1922, Peggy Samuels had no formal training in art history. A graduate of New York University, she married in 1948. The couple ran a business called American Leisure Products, whose specialty was decorative chess sets and puzzles, before selling it in the mid-1970s.

They wrote their first book, “The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West,” in 1976. “Frederic Remington: A Biography” was published in 1982. Their other works include “Collected Writings of Frederic Remington” (1979), “Remembering the Maine” (1995) and “Teddy Roosevelt at San Juan” (1997).

Howard Samuels died in 2002.