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Conrad Richter

コンラッド・リヒター

Konrādo Richitā

Aliases: Conrad Michael Richter

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1890-10-13 （Pine Grove, Pennsylvania）
Died
1968-10-30 （Pottsville, Pennsylvania） age 78
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Religion
Lutheran
Residence History
Pine Grove, Pennsylvania → Albuquerque, New Mexico → Pine Grove, Pennsylvania → Florida

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Editor, Private Secretary, Screenwriter
Active Years
1924-1968
Nominations
National Book Award nomination (1937, The Sea of Grass)

Awards

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
1951
Work: The Town
Organization: Columbia University
Result: Winner
National Book Award for Fiction
1961
Work: The Waters of Kronos
Organization: National Book Foundation
Result: Winner
Ohioana Library Medal
1947
Work: The Fields
Organization: Ohioana Library
Result: Winner
Gold Medal for Literature, Society of Libraries of New York University
1942
Work: The Sea of Grass, The Trees
Organization: Society of Libraries of New York University
Result: Winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Town

1950 Historical Fiction

Final novel in the Awakening Land trilogy about life on the Ohio frontier.

Frontier settlementFamily saga
Adaptations
  • [TV Miniseries] The Awakening Land (1978)

The Waters of Kronos

1960 Semi-autobiographical Novel

Autobiographical novel about reconciling with the past.

Memories of the pastPassage of time

The Sea of Grass

1936 Western Novel

Conflict between ranchers and farmers in late 19th-century New Mexico.

Land conflictFrontier change
Adaptations
  • [Film] The Sea of Grass / Elia Kazan (1947)

The Light in the Forest

1953 Historical Fiction

A white boy raised by Lenape Indians struggles upon return to white society.

Cultural clashIdentity
Adaptations
  • [Film] The Light in the Forest (1958)

The Trees

1940 Historical Fiction

First book of the Awakening Land trilogy on early Ohio frontier.

WildernessPioneers

Bibliography

  • Early Americana
  • The Sea of Grass
  • The Trees
  • Tacey Cromwell
  • The Free Man
  • The Fields
  • Always Young and Fair
  • The Town
  • The Light in the Forest
  • The Mountain on the Desert
  • The Lady
  • The Waters of Kronos
  • A Simple Honorable Man
  • The Grandfathers
  • A Country of Strangers
  • The Awakening Land
  • The Aristocrat
  • Brothers of No Kin and Other Stories
  • The Rawhide Knot and Other Stories

Adaptations

  • The Sea of Grass (film, 1947)
  • The Light in the Forest (film, 1958)
  • The Awakening Land (TV miniseries, 1978)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Lyrical proseDetailed frontier depictionsColloquial dialogue
Recurring Motifs
American frontierPioneer lifeCultural transformation

Legacy

Renowned for lyrical novels on American frontier life, winner of Pulitzer and National Book Awards. Works adapted to film/TV and reissued by academic presses.

In Popular Culture

  • Novels adapted into Hollywood films

Quotes

  • The three books are not only concerned with Sayward and her family but the growth and the astonishingly rapid development of a whole area...
    Source: Louis Bromfield review (1950)
  • Richter's story was the best of all those published in 1914.
    Source: Edward J. O'Brien introduction (1915)

Trivia

  • Descended from Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors.
  • Graduated high school at age 15, ending formal education.
  • Moved to New Mexico for wife's health.