Conrad Richter
Encyclopedia
Conrad Michael Richter was a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. It originated as the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, which was awarded between 1918 and 1947.-1910s:...

-winning American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 novelist whose lyrical work focuses on life along the American frontier.

Biography

Born in Pine Grove, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
Pine Grove, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
Pine Grove is a borough in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the borough population was 2,154.-Geography:Pine Grove is located at ....

, Conrad Richter was the son, grandson, nephew, and great-nephew of Lutheran clergy-men. He grew up in several central Pennsylvania towns, where he came into contact with any number of pioneer descendants. Their stories became the basis of much of Richter's work. He took a job as editor of a local weekly newspaper, the Patton Pennsylvania Courier, when he was nineteen. In 1911 he moved to Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

 and became the private secretary to a wealthy manufacturing family. He subsequently founded a juvenile magazine before moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, for his wife's health, in 1928.

In the early '30s, he had numerous stories published in pulp magazines like Triple-X, Short Stories, Complete Stories, Ghost Stories, and Blue Book. Probably best known for The Sea of Grass
The Sea of Grass (film)
The Sea of Grass is a 1947 western-drama film. It was directed by Elia Kazan and based on the novel of the same name by Conrad Richter. The movie stars Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and Melvyn Douglas....

and The Light in the Forest
The Light in the Forest
The Light in the Forest is a novel first published in 1953 by U.S. author Conrad Richter. Though it is a work of fiction and primarily features fictional characters, the novel incorporates several real people with facts from U.S...

, both were later turned into films. The Town, the third installment of his The Awakening Land
The Awakening Land
The Awakening Land is 1978 television miniseries based on Conrad Richter's trilogy of novels: The Trees; The Fields; and The Town...

trilogy, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. It originated as the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, which was awarded between 1918 and 1947.-1910s:...

 in 1951.
His story, 'Doctor Hanray's Second Chance,' first published in The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...

in 1950, was republished in the anthology, The Saturday Evening Post Fantasy Stories (1951) and in subsequent anthologies of fantasy and science fiction published by the Post. 'Doctor Hanray' contains a recurrent theme of reconciling with the past that is evident in the most autobiographical of Richter's novels, The National Book Award-winner, The Waters of Kronos (1960).

External links

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