Jack Warner Schaefer (November 19, 1907 - January 24, 1991) was a twentieth century American author known for his Westerns. His most famous work is Shane, which was made into a critically acclaimed movie.
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Biography
Schaefer was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of an attorney. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1929 with a major in English. He attended graduate school at Columbia University from 1929-30, but left without completing his Master of Arts degree. He then went to work for the United Press. In his long career as a journalist, he would hold editorial positions at many eastern publications. Schaefer's first success as a novelist came in 1949 with his memorable novel Shane, set in Wyoming. Few realized that Schaefer himself had never been anywhere near the west. Nevertheless, he continued writing successful westerns, selling his home in Connecticut and moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1955. In 1975 Schaefer received the Western Literature Association's Distinguished Achievement award. He died of congestive heart failure in Santa Fe in 1991. Schaefer was married twice, his second wife moving to Santa Fe with him. Schaefer's novel Monte Walsh was made into a movie in 1970, with Lee Marvin in the title role, and again in 2003 as a TV movie starring Tom Selleck.
Books by Schaefer
- Shane (1949)
- First Blood (1953)
- The Big Range (1953) (short stories)
- The Canyon (1953)
- The Pioneers (1954) (short stories)
- Out West: An Anthology of Stories (1955) (Editor)
- Company of Cowards (1957)
- The Kean Land and Other Stories (1959)
- Old Ramon (1960)
- Tales from the West (1961)
- Incident on the Trail (1962)
- The Plainsmen (1963) (children's book)
- Monte Walsh (1963)
- The Great Endurance Horse Race: 600 Miles on a Single Mount, 1908, from Evanston, Wyoming, to Denver (1963)
- Stubby Pringle's Christmas (1964) (children's book)
- Heroes without Glory: Some Goodmen of the Old West (1965)
- Collected Stories (1966)
- Adolphe Francis Alphonse Bandelier (1966)
- New Mexico (1967) (children's book)
- The Short Novels of Jack Schaefer (1967)
- Mavericks (1967) (children's book)
- Hal West: Western Gallery (1971)
- An American Bestiary (1973)
- Conversations with a Pocket Gopher and Other Outspoken Neighbors (1978)
- Jack Schaefer and the American West: Eight Stories (1978) (edited by C.E.J. Smith)
- The Collected Stories of Jack Schaefer (1985)
References
- "Jack (Warner) Schaefer", Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, entry updated 5 September 2003.
