Conrad Richter, novelist, short story writer, and essayist, was born on Johnston Journal Next, he became the October 13, 1890, in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania. Considered one of America's foremost autobiographical novelists, he gleaned material for his writing from local legends about the first Pennsylvania settlers and family stories about his immigrant grandparents. Because his father, a Lutheran minister, served seven parishes, the family moved often, enabling Richter to gather a variety of information on the early history of Pennsylvania. He completed high school in 1906 in Tremont, Pennsylvania, the site of his father's first parish. While Richter did not join the ministry as was expected of him, he explored metaphysical and mystical themes in his fiction and his book-length philosophical essays.

Richter worked as a teamster, farm laborer, industrial worker, bank clerk, subscription salesman, and timberman before launching his writing career at the age of eighteen as...