J. Hyatt Downing
J. Hyatt Downing | |
---|---|
Born | March 18, 1888 Granville, Iowa, U.S. |
Died | 1973 Pismo Beach, California, U.S. |
Education | University of South Dakota |
Occupation(s) | Novelist, short story writer |
Spouse | Mary McGinnis |
Children | 1 |
J. Hyatt Downing (1888-1973) was an American novelist and short story writer. His short stories were published in Scribner's Magazine and Reader's Digest. His novel about Sioux City, Iowa, Sioux City, was a bestseller.
Early life
John Hyatt Downing was born on March 18, 1888 in Granville, Iowa.[1][2][3] He grew up in Hawarden, Iowa and Blunt, South Dakota.[1][2] He worked on his father's ranch and as a railroad surveyor for the Northwestern Railroad, hotel's night clerk and shepherd in Wyoming, Nebraska and the Black Hills.[1][3] He then graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1913.[1][3][4]
Career
Downing worked for the Internal Revenue Service in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He managed an alfalfa farm in Carlsbad, New Mexico in 1921-1925. Downing worked an insurance agent in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1925-1930. At the same time, he began writing short stories for Scribner's Magazine.[1][3]
His first novel, A Prayer for Tomorrow, was a semi-autobiographical account of the ranching culture in South Dakota.[5] He moved to Sioux City, Iowa and wrote four more novels, including Sioux City, which became a bestseller and book of the month.[4] Downing sold the rights to a film production company and moved to California, but the movie was never made. Instead, he wrote publicity and radio scripts for Twentieth Century Fox instead.[1][3] His last short story was published in Reader's Digest in 1963.[1] His novel Four on the Trail was a paperback Western only released in England.[6]
Personal life and death
Downing married Mary McGinnis. They had son, John, in 1921. Downing contracted tuberculosis in 1925.[1][3] Downing and his family first resided in Sioux City, Iowa and later in Pismo Beach, California.[4]
Downing died in 1973 in Pismo Beach, California,at 85.[4]
Works
Novels
- A Prayer for Tomorrow (1938)
- Hope of Living (1939)
- Sioux City (1940)
- Anthony Trant (1941)
- The Harvest is Late (1944)
- Garth (unpublished novel)
Short stories
- And Then It Was Spring
- Buffalo Grass
- The Butte
- Chicken Business
- Closed Roads (Scribner's Magazine, August 1925)
- The Distance to Casper (Scribner's Magazine, February, 1927)
- Dream Street
- The First Illusion (Scribner's Magazine, May 1930)
- Furlough (Farm Journal, July 1943)
- Girl of Many Faces
- The Great MacLeod (Collier's, 1948)
- The Harvesters
- Head of the Family
- Headwork (Liberty, November 6, 1946)
- The House on Bad Woman Creek
- How Does Your Garden Grow
- If Darryl Zanuck...
- Just for the Night (Good Housekeeping, October 1940)
- The Longer Shot
- A Man Needs a Horse (Collier's, February 23, 1946)
- The Man Who Killed Jeb Stuart
- The Marshal's Friend (True, April 1947)
- Old Cimmarron - On the Santa Fe Trail (Westways, August 1951)
- One of the Boys
- Out of the Dark (Liberty, May 10 and 24, 1947)
- The Return of Willie Scroggs (Country Gentleman, July 1947)
- Rewards (Scribner's Magazine, April 1926)
- The Sage of Virgin Creek
- Sir, the King!
- Star Without Glamor (Collier's, October 20, 1945)
- Sun-Kissed Bangtails (Collier's, March 2, 1946)
- This Is Where He Walked
- Treasury of the Past (Holiday, November 1946)
- We Went West (Scribner's Magazine, May 1928)
- Woman In A Hurry
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h University of Iowa library
- ^ a b John R. Milton, The Literature of South Dakota, Dakota Press, 1976, p. 254 [1]
- ^ a b c d e f Clarence A. Andrews, A Literary History of Iowa, University of Iowa Press, 1972, pp. 38-42 [2]
- ^ a b c d "Best-Seller Author Dies; Lived In S.D.". The Daily Plainsman. Huron, South Dakota. January 7, 1973. p. 12. Retrieved November 12, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Joel Johnson, 'Literature and the Political Cultures of South Dakota', in The Plains Political Tradition: Essays on South Dakota Political Culture, Jon K. Lauck (ed.), John E. Miller (ed.), Donald C. Simmons, Jr. (ed.), Pierre, South Dakota: South Dakota State Historical Society Press, 2011, p. 169
- ^ Anthony T. Wadden, 'J. Hyatt Downing: The Chronicle of an Era' in Books at Iowa 8, 1977, p. 56
External links
- The J. Hyatt Downing Papers are housed at the University of Iowa Special Collections & University Archives.
- 1888 births
- 1973 deaths
- Novelists from Iowa
- Writers from South Dakota
- University of South Dakota alumni
- 20th-century American novelists
- People from Hawarden, Iowa
- People from Hughes County, South Dakota
- American male novelists
- American male short story writers
- 20th-century American short story writers
- 20th-century American male writers
- People from Aberdeen, South Dakota
- People from Sioux City, Iowa
- People from Pismo Beach, California