by Conrad Richter

Anative of Pine Grove, Pennsylvania, Conrad Richter (1890-1968) had a natural love for the woodsy countryside in which he grew up and a deep appreciation of the region's history. As both a journalist and a novelist, he focused on the lives of pioneers and American Indian tribes affected by colonial expansion. Richter had deep feelings for both the Indians and the immigrant-pioneers and saw a distinct connection between American events in the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. The Light in the Forest reveals the adverse impact that immigrant development had on native peoples and landscapes. Through the novel, Richter attempted to show that U.S. domination of third world countries in the 1950s was producing many of the same negative results as the colonization of the American wilderness in the 1750s.

Events in History at the Time the Novel Takes Place