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,

, 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

. 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