Ohio's Louis Bromfield earned many awards and accolades as a writer during the mid-20th century, but there don't seem to be many people who are really familiar with him and his work today.
Bromfield was one of Mansfield Ohio's most famous natives, and his friends included many famous literary personalities, as well as stars of films and stage shows, artists, politicians and other leading celebrities of the 1920s through the 1950s.
Who was Bromfield, and what works bear the name of this Pulitzer-Prize winning writer?
Bromfield grew up on his family's farm in Ohio and originally studied architecture at Cornell. He switched to journalism after a couple of years, transferring to Columbia University in New York City 1916.
He left Columbia less than a year later to volunteer with the American Field Service as an ambulance driver in France with the outbreak of World War I. He earned the Croix de Guerre and Legion of Honor for his service there.
Bromfield returned to New York City after the war and began working as a reporter by 1924.
Bromfield loved living in France during WWI and returned there to live with his family after a 1925 vacation, staying there for the next 13 years.
He also started writing fiction. His first novel was The Green Bay Tree, and he won a Pulitzer Prize for best novel for his work, Early Autumn, in 1927.
Bromfield was part of large group of expatriate writers living in Europe during the 1920s and 1930s like Edith Wharton, Sinclair Lewis and Gertrude Stein.
He published more than 30 novels, many of them best sellers, and many of his books, short stories, and other pieces became the basis for popular motion pictures, plays or television productions during the mid-20th century.
Bromfield frequently visited California during this time for work as a screen writer and became friends with some of the most famous film stars of Hollywood's Golden Age like Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Errol Flynn.
Some of the most popular films that earned Bromfield film writing credits include The Rains Came (starring Myrna Kit and Tyrone Power in 1939), Mrs. Parkington (starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon in 1944), Brigham Young (starring Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell in 1940) and The Rains of Ranchipur (starring Lana Turner and Richard Burton in 1955).
Bromfield decided to move his family, which included a wife and three children at the time, back to Ohio as World War II threatened to overcome Europe.
He began writing more non-fiction with his return to America and become a pioneer in sustainable agriculture, or what he called the "New Agriculture".
Today, Bromfield's former home is now Malabar Farm State Park. It includes a 1,500-square-foot visitors' center and a 2,000-square-foot gift shop and book store where you can purchase many of Bromfield's classic works.
A listing of Bromfield's written work at Wikipedia includes:
The Green Bay Tree, 1924
Possession, 1925
Early Autumn, 1926
A Good Woman, 1927
The House of Women, 1927 stage play
The Work of Robert Nathan, 1927
The Strange Case of Miss Annie Sprig, 1928
Awake and Rehearse, 1929
Tabloid News, 1930
Twenty-four Hours, 1930
A Modern Hero, 1932
The Farm, 1933
The Man Who Had Everything, 1935
The Rains Came, 1937
McLeod's Folly, 1939
England: A Dying Oligarchy, 1939
Night in Bombay, 1940
Wild Is the River, 1941
Mrs. Parkington, 1943
The World We Live In: Stories, 1944
What Became of Anna Bolton, 1944
Pleasant Valley, 1945
Bitter Lotus, Cleveland, Ohio: The World Publishing Company, 1945, (German translation by Elisabeth Rotten, Wien, Stuttgart: Humboldt-Vela, 1941)
A Few Brass Tacks, 1946
Colorado, 1947
Kenny, 1947
Malabar Farm, 1948
Out of the Earth, 1950
Mr. Smith, 1951
The Wealth of the Soil, 1952
Up Ferguson Way, 1953
A New Pattern for a Tired World, 1954
Animals and Other People, 1955
From My Experience, 1955
Check out my story from last week, Author travels the world, and then brings the world to Ohio's Malabar Farm, for more about Bromfield and his pioneering farm.
Thanks to Xanterra Parks and Resorts and Mohican State Park Lodge, which provided lodging, meals and on-site activities for my review, with no further compensation. I was free to express my own opinion about my stay and experiences, and the opinions expressed here are mine.
© Dominique King 2016 All rights reserved
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