LOS ANGELES — Robert V. Hine, a memoirist, novelist and prolific historian of the American West who wrote a highly praised chronicle of regaining his sight after 15 years of blindness, has died of natural causes at his Irvine, Calif., home. He was 93. Hine was a founding member of the faculty at the University of California, Riverside, where he taught history from 1954 to 1990.