Walter "Wat" Dumaux Edmonds (July 15, 1903 – January 24, 1998) was an American writer best known for

historical novels Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

. One of them, ''

Drums Along the Mohawk ''Drums Along the Mohawk'' is a 1939 American historical drama western film based upon a 1936 novel of the same name by American author Walter D. Edmonds. The film was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by John Ford. Henry Fonda and Clau ...

'' (1936), was

adapted In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...

as a

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

feature film in 1939, directed by

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...

and starring

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 ...

and

Claudette Colbert Claudette Colbert ( ; born Émilie Claudette Chauchoin; September 13, 1903July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictures ...

Life

Edmonds was born in

Boonville, New York Boonville is a town in Oneida County, New York, United States. The town is in the northeastern section of the county. The population was 4,555 at the 2010 census. The town includes a village, also called Boonville. The town and village are named ...

. In 1919 he entered

The Choate School Choate Rosemary Hall (often known as Choate; ) is a private, co-educational, college-preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, United States. Choate is currently ranked as the second best boarding school and third best private hi ...

(now Choate Rosemary Hall) in

Wallingford, Connecticut Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, centrally located between New Haven and Hartford, and Boston and New York City. The population was 44,396 at the 2020 census. The community was named after Wallingford, in En ...

. Originally intending to study

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

, he became more interested in writing and worked as

managing editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edito ...

of the Choate ''

Literary Magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

''. He graduated in 1926 from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, where he edited ''

The Harvard Advocate ''The Harvard Advocate'', the art and literary magazine of Harvard College, is the oldest continuously published college art and literary magazine in the United States. The magazine (published then in newspaper format) was founded by Charles S. ...

'', and where he studied with

Charles Townsend Copeland Charles Townsend Copeland (April 27, 1860 – July 24, 1952) was a professor, poet, and writer. He graduated from Harvard University and spent much of his time as a mentor at Harvard, where he served in several posts, including Boylston Profess ...

. He married Eleanor Stetson in 1930. In 1929, he published his first novel, '' Rome Haul'', a work about the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...

. The novel was adapted for the 1934 play ''

The Farmer Takes a Wife ''The Farmer Takes a Wife'' is a 1934 play by Frank B. Elser and Marc Connelly based on the 1929 novel '' Rome Haul'' by Walter D. Edmonds. It was well-received upon its opening night on Broadway on October 30, 1934, at the 46th Street Theatre ...

'' and the 1935 film of the same name. ''

'' was on the

bestseller A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, cookb ...

list for two years, second only to

Margaret Mitchell Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel, published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel '' Gone with the Wind'', for which she wo ...

's famous 1936 novel ''

Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Win ...

'' for part of that time. Edmonds eventually published 34 books, many for children, as well as a number of magazine stories. He won the

Lewis Carroll Shelf Award The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award was an American literary award conferred on several books annually by the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education annually from 1958 to 1979. Award-winning books were deemed to "belong on the same shelf" ...

in 1960 and the

Newbery Medal The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...

in 1942, for ''

The Matchlock Gun ''The Matchlock Gun'' is a children's book by Walter D. Edmonds. It won the Newbery Medal for excellence as the most distinguished contribution to American children's literature in 1942. Synopsis The book is set in the year 1756 during the Frenc ...

'', and the

National Book Award for Young People's Literature The National Book Award for Young People's Literature is one of five annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation (NBF) to recognize outstanding literary work by US citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers".< ...

in 1976, for ''

Bert Breen's Barn ''Bert Breen's Barn'' is a children's historical novel set in the early 1900s, written by Walter D. Edmonds and first published by Little Brown in 1975. The main character is Tom Dolan, an impoverished young man who lives in the north Adironda ...

''. When Eleanor died in 1956, Walter married Katherine Howe Baker Carr, who died in 1989. Walter Edmonds died in

Concord, Massachusetts Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the conflu ...

, in 1998.

Work

Novels

*'' Rome Haul'' (1929) * *''The Big Barn'' (1930) *''Erie Water'' (1933) *''

'' (1936) * *''

Chad Hanna ''Chad Hanna'' is a 1940 American drama romance film directed by Henry King, and was adapted from a bestseller of sorts that was published that same year. The novel was written by Walter Dumaux Edmonds (after it had first been published in seri ...

'' (1940) * *''Young Ames'' (1942) * *''The Wedding Journey'' (1947) *''The Boyds of Black River'' (1953) * ''Wolf Hunt'' (1970)

Juvenile Novels

*''

'' (1941) *''Tom Whipple'' (1942) *''Two Logs Crossing: John Haskell's Story'' (1943) *''Cadmus Henry'' (1949) *''Time to Go House'' (1969) *''

'' (1975)

Autobiographical Novel

*''The South African Quirt'' (1985)

Short Story Collections

*''Mostly Canallers'' (1934) * *''In the Hands of the Senecas'' (1947) *''Seven American Stories'' (1970) *''The Night Raider and Other Stories'' (1980)

Non-Fiction

*''They Fought with What They Had: The Story of the Army Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific, 1941-1942'' (1951) *''The Musket and the Cross: The Struggle of France and England for North America'' (1968) *''Tales My Father Never Told'' (1995) * Novels ''Rome Haul'', ''Drums Along the Mohawk'', ''Chad Hanna'', ''Young Ames'' and the short story collection ''Mostly Canallers'' were published as

Armed Services Editions Armed Services Editions (ASEs) were small paperback books of fiction and nonfiction that were distributed in the American military during World War II. From 1943 to 1947, some 122 million copies of more than 1,300 ASE titles were distributed to s ...

during

WWII 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 ...

References

External links

Choate Rosemary Hall obituary

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Edmonds, Walter D. 1903 births 1998 deaths American children's writers American historical novelists 20th-century American novelists Newbery Medal winners National Book Award for Young People's Literature winners Novelists from New York (state) Novelists from Massachusetts Choate Rosemary Hall alumni People from Boonville, New York American male novelists Harvard Advocate alumni 20th-century American male writers