About The Author
CONRAD RICHTER (1890-1968)
Conrad Richter was born on October 13, 1890, in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania. He started working when he was fifteen. His early jobs included teamster, clerk, farm hand, and bank teller. At nineteen he became the editor of the weekly Courier in Patton, Pennsylvania. After that he worked as a reporter at newspapers in Pittsburgh and Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
In 1928 Richter moved to the West and began a career as a full-time writer, specializing in fictional accounts of early American life.
The Trees, 1940, The Fields , 1946, and The Town, 1950, are probably Richter's best known works. The three novels deal realistically with early American life on the frontier. Richter enjoys looking into the minds of the pioneers as well as the myths about their life.
His other writings include Brothers of No Kin and Other Stories, 1924; Early Americana and Other Stories, 1936; The Sea of Grass, 1937; Tacey Cromwell, 1942; The Light in the Forest, 1953; The Mountain on the Desert, 1955; Over the Blue Mountain, 1962; The Wanderer, 1966; and The Aristocrat, 1966.
The Sea of Grass was made into a movie in 1947 by MGM. The Light in the Forest was filmed in 1958 by Buena Vista (Walt Disney Productions.) The novel Tacey Cromwell was the basis for the Universal film "One Desire" in 1955.
Richter was the recipient of many literary awards throughout his career. In 1942 he was awarded the Gold Medal for Literature of Society of Libraries of New York University for Sea of Grass and The Trees. In 1951 he was awarded the Ohioana Library Medal. Richter received the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Town. He also received the National Institute of Arts and Letters grant in literature in 1959; the Maggie Award in 1959 for The Lady; and the National Book Award in 1961 for The Waters of Kronos.
His honorary degrees include Litt. D., Susquehanna University, 1944, University of New Mexico, 1958, Lafayette College, 1966; LL.D., Temple University, 1966; and L.H.D., Lebanon Valley College, 1966.
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