A. B. Guthrie Jr.

Template:Short description Template:Infobox person Alfred Bertram "Bud" Guthrie Jr. (January 13, 1901 – April 26, 1991) was an American novelist, screenwriter, historian, and literary historian known for writing western stories. His novel The Way West won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and his screenplay for Shane (1953) was nominated for an Academy Award.

Biography

Guthrie was born in 1901 in Bedford, Indiana. When he was six months old he relocated with his parents to Montana,<ref name=guthrie2>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> where his father became the first principal of the Teton County Free High School in Choteau.<ref name="blue hen">Template:Cite book</ref> His father was a graduate of Indiana University, his mother from Earlham College at Richmond, Indiana.<ref name="blue hen"/>Template:Rp

A constant reader, Guthrie tried to write while in high school, "fiction pretty much, some essays, but I majored in journalism. My father had been a newspaper man for four years in this little town in Kentucky, and I guess he thought it was the way to become a writer".<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>^:3

In 1919, Guthrie studied at the University of Washington for a year, then transferred to the University of Montana, where he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity<ref name="HAAS8">Template:Cite book</ref> and graduated with a degree in journalism with honors in 1923.<ref name="Severo">Template:Cite news</ref> He worked odd jobs for the next few years.<ref name="Severo"/>

In 1926, Guthrie took out a $300 bank loan and moved to Lexington, Kentucky,<ref name="blue hen"/>Template:Rp where he took a job at the Lexington Leader newspaper.<ref name="blue hen"/>Template:Rp For the next 21 years he worked as a reporter, the city editor, and an editorial writer for the Leader.<ref name="Severo"/><ref name=APobit>Template:Cite news</ref> Guthrie published his first novel Murders at Moon Dance in 1943.<ref name="blue hen"/>Template:Rp<ref name=APobit/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1944, while still at the Leader, Guthrie won the Nieman Fellowship from Harvard,<ref name="Severo"/><ref name="Nieman">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and spent the year at the university studying writing.<ref name=APobit/> While at Harvard he made friends with English professor Theodore Morrison,<ref name="blue hen"/>Template:Rp "who knew so much about writing, probably more than I ever will."<ref name=":0" />^:3 Morrison mentored Guthrie and helped him transition from journalism to fiction.<ref name=APobit/><ref name="Keller">Template:Cite journal</ref>

During his year at Harvard Guthrie began his novel The Big Sky, which was published in 1947.<ref name=APobit/><ref name="Keller"/> Guthrie later wrote, "It wasn't until I went to Harvard that I got in gear. Then I went back and worked for the newspaper for another year or so."<ref name=":0" />^:4

At the Lexington Leader Guthrie's boss was very understanding and as long as Guthrie performed his news duties satisfactorily he was allowed to take his afternoons off to write fiction.<ref name=":0" />^:18 After publication of The Big Sky Guthrie left the paper and supported himself by teaching creative writing at University of Kentucky.<ref name="Severo"/> During this time he published The Way West which won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.<ref name=APobit/><ref name="pulitzer">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He quit teaching in 1952 to devote his full-time to writing,<ref name="Severo"/> and moved back to Choteau, Montana, because he said it was his "point of outlook on the universe".<ref name=":0" />Template:Rp He split his residence between Choteau and Great Falls, Montana, an hour away from Choteau.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Guthrie continued to write predominantly western subjects. He worked for a time in Hollywood, writing the screenplays for Shane (1953, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award) and The Kentuckian (1955).<ref name="Severo"/>

His other books included These Thousand Hills (1956), The Blue Hen's Chick (1965), Arfive (1970), The Last Valley (1975), Fair Land, Fair Land (1982), Murder in the Cotswolds (1989), and A Field Guide to Writing Fiction (1991).<ref name="Severo"/><ref name=APobit/> His first collection of short stories, The Big It and Other Stories, was published in 1960.<ref name="Severo"/>

Guthrie died in 1991, at age 90, at his ranch near Choteau.<ref name="Severo"/><ref name=APobit/> Mr. Guthrie was married to Harriet Larson in 1931 and by her he had two children, Alfred B. 3d, of Choteau, and Helen Miller of Butte, Mont., who survive him. Harriet Guthrie died in the early 1960's, and he married Carol B. Luthin in 1969. She survives him, as do two stepchildren, Herbert Luthin, of Clarion, Pa., and Amy Sakariassen, of Bismarck, N.D.

Bibliography

Western Novels

• The Big Sky (1947)
• The Way West (1949)
• These Thousand Hills (1956)
• Arfive (1971)
• The Last Valley (1975)
• Fair Land, Fair Land (1982)

Western Mystery Novellas

• Murders at Moon Dance (1943)
• Wild Pitch (1974), featuring Sheriff Chick Charleston
• The Genuine Article (1977), featuring Sheriff Chick Charleston
• No Second Wind (1980), featuring Sheriff Chick Charleston
• Playing Catch-up (1985), featuring Sheriff Chick Charleston
• Murder in the Cotswolds (1989), featuring Sheriff Chick Charleston

Short-story collections

• The Big It, and Other Stories (1960), "Bargain" (originally titled "Bargain at Moon Dance")<ref name="bargain">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Non-fiction

• The Blue Hen's Chick (1965)
• Big Sky, Fair Land: The Environmental Essays of A. B. Guthrie Jr., edited by David Peterson (1988)
• A Field Guide to Writing Fiction (1991)

Children's books

• The Big Sky: An Edition For Young Readers (1950)
• Once Upon a Pond (1973)

Poetry

• Four Miles from Ear Mountain (1987)

Screenplays

• Shane (1953)
• The Kentuckian (1955)

Spoken word

• A. B. Guthrie Jr., reads from THE BIG SKY (Caedmon, 1974)

External links

• Western American Literature Journal: A.B. Guthrie
• U. Eastern Kentucky site
• Literary History of the American West page on Guthrie
• A. B. Guthrie Jr. Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.