Oakley Maxwell Hall (July 1, 1920 – May 12, 2008) was an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

. He was born in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

, graduated from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, and served in the

Marines Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refle ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Some of his mysteries were published under the pen names "O.M. Hall" and "Jason Manor." Hall received his

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

in English from the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Wri ...

at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

Career

His books focus primarily on the historical American West. His most famous book, ''Warlock'', was a finalist for the

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...

in 1958. The film adaptation of the same title, directed by

Edward Dmytryk Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 – July 1, 1999) was an American film director. He was known for his 1940s films noir, noir films and received an Academy Award for Best Director, Oscar nomination for Best Director for ''Crossfire (film), Cros ...

, starred

Henry Fonda Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor. He had a career that spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. He cultivated an everyman screen image in several films considered to be classics. Born and rai ...

Richard Widmark Richard Weedt Widmark (December 26, 1914March 24, 2008) was an American film, stage, and television actor and producer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, '' Kiss of Death'' (1947) ...

and

Anthony Quinn Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001), known professionally as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican-American actor. He was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental v ...

. In

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, scie ...

's introduction to

Richard Fariña Richard George Fariña ( Spanish IPA: ) (March 8, 1937 – April 30, 1966) was an American folksinger, songwriter, poet and novelist. Early years and education Fariña was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States, the son of an Irish mother, ...

's ''

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me ''Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me'' is a novel by Richard Fariña. Parts campus novel and travelogue, the book was first published in 1966 and is largely based on Fariña's college experiences and travels. Set variously in an upstat ...

'', Pynchon stated that he and Fariña started a "micro-cult" around ''Warlock''. Another novel, ''The Downhill Racers'', was made into a

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

starring

Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the List of awards and nominations received by Robert Redford, recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Awards, Academy Award from four nomi ...

in 1969. After the death of

Wallace Stegner Wallace Earle Stegner (February 18, 1909 – April 13, 1993) was an American novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and historian, often called "The Dean of Western Writers". He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 and the U.S. National Book ...

, Hall was considered the dean of West Coast writers, having supported the early careers of novelists such as

Richard Ford Richard Ford (born February 16, 1944) is an American novelist and short story writer. His best-known works are the novel '' The Sportswriter'' and its sequels, '' Independence Day'', ''The Lay of the Land'' and ''Let Me Be Frank With You'', and t ...

and

Michael Chabon Michael Chabon ( ; born May 24, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, DC, he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, gr ...

, both graduates of the well-known writing program at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

, where Hall taught for many years, and

Amy Tan Amy Ruth Tan (born on February 19, 1952) is an American author known for the novel '' The Joy Luck Club,'' which was adapted into a film of the same name, as well as other novels, short story collections, and children's books. Tan has written ...

, his student from The Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. Hall's colleagues at Irvine included Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and fellow Iowa graduate Charles Wright, and poet and Victorian Scholar Robert Peters. San Diego—and Hall's one-time San Diego neighborhood of Mission Hills—serve as focal points of two novels, ''Corpus of Joe Bailey'' and ''Love & War in California''. Oakley Hall married Barbara Edinger Hall, a professional photographer, in 1944, and they were married for 64 years. They had four children: Brett Hall Jones, director of the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, the writers’ conference that Oakley Hall helped found in 1969;

Sands Hall Sands Hall (April 17, 1952) is an American writer, theatre director, actor, and musician. Biography The daughter of novelist Oakley Hall, she was born in La Jolla, California, and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama from ...

, a teacher, actor, director, and novelist (''Catching Heaven'', 2000, and ''Tools of the Writer’s Craft'', 2005); Tracy, a schoolteacher; and Oakley "Tad" Hall III, the author of the play ''Grinder’s Stand'', whose tragic fall from a bridge and the brain damage suffered from this fall are documented in Bill Rose's film '' The Loss of Nameless Things''. Hall died May 12, 2008, in

Nevada City, California Nevada City (originally, ''Ustumah'', a Nisenan village; later, Nevada, Deer Creek Dry Diggins, and Caldwell's Upper Store) is the county seat of Nevada County, California, United States, northeast of Sacramento, southwest of Reno and northea ...

. Among his many honors are lifetime achievement awards from the

PEN American Center PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922 and headquartered in New York City, is a nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate Freedom of speech, free expression in the United States and worldwide through the ad ...

and the

Cowboy Hall of Fame The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of Ame ...

Bibliography

Western

*''

Warlock A warlock is a male practitioner of witchcraft. Etymology and terminology The most commonly accepted etymology derives ''warlock'' from the Old English '' wǣrloga'', which meant "breaker of oaths" or "deceiver" and was given special applicatio ...

'' (Legends West, 1958) *''The Adelita'' (1975) *''The Bad Lands'' (Legends West, 1978) *''The Children of the Sun'' (1983) *''The Coming of the Kid'' (1985) *''Apaches'' (Legends West, 1986)

Ambrose Bierce series

*''

Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book ''The Devil's Dictionary'' was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by t ...

and the Queen of Spades'' (1998) *''Ambrose Bierce and the Death of Kings'' (2001) *''Ambrose Bierce and the One-Eyed Jacks'' (2003) *''Ambrose Bierce and the Trey of Pearls'' (2004) *''Ambrose Bierce and the Ace of Shoots'' (2005)

Other novels

*''Murder City'' (as O.M. Hall, 1949) *''So Many Doors'' (1950) *''Corpus of Joe Bailey'' (1953) *''Too Dead to Run'' as Jason Manor (1953) *''The Red Jaguar'' as Jason Manor (1954) *''The Pawns of Fear'' as Jason Manor (1955) *''Mardios Beach'' (1955) *''The Tramplers'' as Jason Manor (1956) *''The Downhill Racers'' (1963) *''The Pleasure Garden'' (1966) *''A Game for Eagles'' (1970) *''Report from Beau Harbor'' (1971) *''Lullaby'' (1982) *''Separations'' (1997) *''Love and War in California'' (2007)

Non-fiction

*''The Art and Craft of Novel Writing'' (1995) *''How Fiction Works'' (2000)

References

6. SF Chronicle Datebook 2021-01-27, Anderson, Scott Thomas: “Unraveling the Mysteries of San Francisco with the writer who brought Ambrose Bierce back to life” Reflections on the scope of work and influence of Oakley Hall

External links

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Interview & reading
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Oakley 1920 births 2008 deaths 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Writers from San Diego Western (genre) writers University of California, Berkeley alumni United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni American opera librettists 20th-century dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers