Harvey Fergusson (January 28, 1890 – August 27, 1971) was an American writer.
Life and career
Fergusson was born and grew up in
Albuquerque
Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...
,
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
. His father was
Harvey B. Fergusson, the attorney and Congressman. He attended his father's alma mater,
Washington and Lee University
, mottoeng = "Not Unmindful of the Future"
, established =
, type = Private liberal arts university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.092 billion (2021)
, president = William C. Dudley
, provost = Lena Hill
, city = Lexington ...
in
Lexington,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, graduating in 1911. Soon after leaving college, he took a job as a staff reporter for the
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
''Herald''. After brief stints with newspapers in
Savannah,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
and
Richmond,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, he returned to DC and joined the Washington bureau of the
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
''Record-Herald''. He left the paper in 1915 to work as an assistant to the columnist Frederic Haskin. He married for the first time in 1919 — the marriage ended in divorce a few years later. In 1923, he left journalism to devote himself full-time to writing.
Fergusson's second novel, ''Capitol Hill'', drew heavily upon his experiences as a reporter. His protagonist, Ralph Dolan, works his way up through the newspaper trade, then switches to the business of
public relations
Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...
and
lobbying
In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...
, ending as the top lobbyist of a large industry association. Virtually in parallel with ''Capitol Hill,'' Fergusson wrote ''The Blood of the Conquerors'', the first of his historical novels set in New Mexico. ''Blood'' was also the first novel in a trilogy Fergusson titled, ''Followers of the Sun''. The other books in this trilogy were ''In Those Days'' and ''Wolf Song''.
''Wolf Song'' is considered by most critics to be his best novel — indeed, some have called it the finest novel of the
American West. It tells the story of a mountain man, Sam Lash, loosely modelled on
Kit Carson
Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman. He was a fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and U.S. Army officer. He became a frontier legend in his own lifetime by biographies and ...
. Fergusson married for the second time in 1927, the year of ''Wolf Song's'' publication, but his wife, cartoonist
Rebecca McCann, died of pneumonia before the year ended.
He moved to
Hollywood and worked intermittently as a screenwriter, earning credits on ''
It Happened in Hollywood
''It Happened in Hollywood'' is a 1937 American comedy film directed by Harry Lachman and starring Richard Dix, Fay Wray and Victor Kilian. The arrival of sound wrecks the career of a leading western actor while his leading lady rises to new hei ...
'' (1937) and ''
Stand Up and Fight'' (1939). His primary focus remained on novel-writing, although it would be over 20 years before he returned to the subject of the West's past. His two novels of the 1930s dealt with contemporary themes, and Fergusson also published two works of non-fiction, ''Rio Grande'' and ''Modern Man: His Beliefs and Behavior''.
Fergusson moved to
Berkeley in the early 1940s, where he wrote an autobiographical book, ''Home in the West: An Inquiry into My Origins.'' He also returned to the subject of politics, this time as a work of non-fiction, ''People and Power: A Study of Political Behavior in America.'' His last two novels, ''Grant of Kingdom'' and ''The Conquest of Don Pedro'', dealt with earlier periods in the history of
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
. Fergusson died in Berkeley, in 1971, at the age of 81.
Works
* ''The Blood of the Conquerors'' (1921) Knopf
* ''Capitol Hill'' (1923)
* ''Women and Wives'' (1924)
* ''Hot Saturday'' (1926)
* ''Wolf Song'' (1927)
* ''In Those Days'' (1929)
* ''Footloose McGarnigal'' (1930)
* ''Rio Grande'' (1933)
* ''Modern Man: His Belief and Behavior'' (1936)
* ''The Life of Riley'' (1937)
* ''Home in the West'' (1945)
* ''People and Power: A Study of Political Behavior in America'' (1947)
* ''Grant of Kingdom '' (1950)
* ''The Conquest of Don Pedro'' (1955)
Bibliography
* Robert F. Gish (1988) ''Frontier's End: The Life and Literature of Harvey Fergusson'', University of Nebraska Press
* Blanche Christensen Crawford (1951)
Harvey Fergusson, interpreter of the Southwest. ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso.
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fergusson, Harvey
1890 births
1971 deaths
20th-century American novelists
American male novelists
American newspaper journalists
American male screenwriters
Writers from Albuquerque, New Mexico
Writers from Berkeley, California
Screenwriters from California
Screenwriters from New Mexico
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
American male non-fiction writers
20th-century American screenwriters