American writer
J. Hyatt Downing
Born March 18, 1888 Died 1973 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 as 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Garth (unpublished novel)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
International National Other