During his youth Braun was raised among the Cherokee and Osage tribes. He learned their traditions and culture, and along the way he developed an abiding respect for all Indians. Their philosophy regarding the right of each man to walk his own path became the foundation of Braun’s own beliefs.

Braun’s great-grandfather founded a ranch in western Oklahoma and once survived a shootout with three horse thieves. Still another ancestor was one of the foremost ranchers in Texas. John Adair went into partnership with Charles Goodnight, a legendary cattleman who blazed the Goodnight-Loving Trail. With Adair’s business acumen and Goodnight’s cow savvy, the outfit was established in Palo Duro Canyon, deep in the Texas Panhandle. By 1880, the partners controlled one million acres of land and more than 100,000 cows wore the JA Brand.

To a great extent, Braun is a man born out of his time. Like his ancestors, he has spent the majority of his life wandering the mountains and plains of the West. He writes of a West where a hardy breed of individualists challenged and conquered a raw and hostile land. His heritage, as well as his contribution to Western literature, resulted in his appointment by the Governor of Oklahoma as a Territorial Marshal. His novel BLACK FOX was adapted into a six-hour miniseries by CBS, and ONE LAST TOWN was adapted into a two-hour movie by TNT.

Among other honors, Braun won the Western Writers of America Golden Spur Award and the Festival of the West Cowboy Spirit Award. His novels are written with a passion for historical authenticity and realism, and based on actual incidents. Dee Brown, the noted historian and author, commented on his work:

"Matt Braun has a genius for taking real characters out of the Old West and giving them flesh-and-blood immediacy."

Today, Braun lives in a remote section of mountains. He continues to travel the West, gathering source material for his novels. He stays in shape chopping firewood, riding horses, and training on a boxer’s speed bag. Not unlike the characters in his books, he is a crack shot and works out consistently on a combat pistol course. He is widely regarded as the most authentic writer of the American West.