Biography for
Glendon Swarthout More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

8 April 1918, Pinckney, Michigan, USA

Date of Death

23 September 1992, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA (emphysema)

Birth Name

Glendon Fred Swarthout

Mini Biography

Novelist Glendon Swarthout had the widest literary range of any American author of his generation, writing 16 novels, which ranged from dramas to comedies to romances and mysteries, and another 6 novellas for young adults with his wife, Kathryn. Many of Glendon's novels became international bestsellers and book club editions, reprinted in innumerable paperback editions, some still available in bookstores and libraries worldwide. With a PhD. in Victorian literature, as well as Master's and B.A. degrees in English from the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, Dr. Swarthout knew almost too much about the great works of fiction and their authors, and was constantly trying to top them, never writing sequels to any of his hit novels or a series of books based on his lead characters. Glendon later admitted this was possibly a mistake, for critics and fans never knew what might come out of his typewriter next, although editors tried to get him to write a Where The Girls Are or a series of Shootist Westerns many times. Still, Glendon won many writing awards for his stories and quite a few of them were also eventually made into interesting motion pictures, including the film hits Where The Boys Are (MGM,1960) and The Shootist (Paramount, 1976), as well as less successful films, Seventh Cavalry (Columbia, 1956), They Came To Cordura (Columbia, 1959), and Bless the Beasts & Children (Columbia, 1972). Bless the Beasts has never been out of print since 1970, though, and another new American edition of The Shootist was reprinted by Bison Books in late 2011.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Miles Hood Swarthout

Spouse

Kathryn Swarthout

(28 December 1940 - 23 September 1992) (his death)

Trivia

Prolific author Glendon Swarthout had a phenomenal book and short story sale to Hollywood ratio. Over 50% of the 16 novels and six books for teenagers he wrote, as well as several of his 14 short stories, were either optioned, sold, or eventually made into motion pictures or movies for television. The amazing literary batting average was due to his truly original stories of all types and genres, as well as because Glendon told linear stories, with beginnings, middles, and end, without a lot of interior monologues (what his characters were thinking), or flashbacks. Thus, these exciting, well-constructed tales lent themselves very readily to becoming motion pictures.

Father of writer Miles Hood Swarthout.