Conrad Richter Books In Order

Publication Order of The Awakening Land Books

Publication Order of The Light in the Forest Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Conrad Richter was an American published author.

Conrad was born on October 13, 1890 in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania. From the time he was young he heard stories of his family’s pioneer days in the East. His family relocated to New Mexico together in 1928, and there Conrad’s mind, heart and senses were lit up by and captured by the Southwest.

His work is frequently centered around life in different periods on the American frontier. He has won several awards and commendations, among them the Pulitzer Prize. Conrad published many novels, some of which were reissued by academic presses in the 21st century. He also had two short story collections that were published after his death on October 30, 1968.

The writer grew up near Pottsville in Tremont, Pennsylvania. His father was a Lutheran minister and his mother was Charlotte Esther. His uncle, great uncle and grandfather were all also ministers in the Lutheran church and came from German colonial immigrants. When the author was young, he lived in different mining towns with his family, and there he met people who had been born from pioneers that lived in the 18th and 19th centuries that would share stories about their family. He would be inspired by them later to write stories of historical fiction that were set on the frontiers of America. He would finish his education graduating from high school at the age of 15.

When Conrad was 19 he began working for the Courier newspaper as an editor. He moved to Cleveland in 1911 and worked for a wealthy family as their private secretary. In 1915 he would marry Harvena Maria Achenbach and they would a child named Harvena Richter in 1917. He also worked for a publishing company, starting a magazine while also beginning to pen short stories. In the thirties, he was a screenwriter in Hollywood for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. Richter contributed uncredited to the movies Of Human Hearts and Northwest Passage.

He would keep on writing stories and attempting to sell them, and indeed they were published in a variety of magazines. He would move to Albuquerque in New Mexico in 1928, for his wife and her health. At this time he was able to collect material that he made into short stories focusing on the days in the Southwest frontier. He moved to Pine Grove, Pennsylvania with his wife in 1933 to live, and they would split time between Florida and Pine Grove as well as Albuquerque. His book Early Americana and Other Stories came out in 1936 and did very well commercially.

The author kept on writing and came out with novels set in different parts of American history on the frontier. One of the best-recognized of these is The Sea of Grass, which takes place in New Mexico during the late 19th century and deals with farmer and rancher conflict. The book would be adapted into a feature film that starred Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Elia Kazan directed the film, which came out in 1947.

His novel “The Town” would be featured as an episode of Pulitzer Playhouse, his novel Tacey Cromwell was adapted into One Desire, a dramatic 1955 movie, his novel The Light in the Forest was adapted into a movie as well as a 1961 television series for The Magical World of Disney, and the Awakening Land was adapted into a 1978 television mini-series.

Richter has received many literary awards and honorary doctorates. He won the Gold Metal for Literature for The Sea of Grass as well as his novel The Trees from the Society of Libraries, based out of New York University. His novel The Fields won him an Ohioana Literary Medal in 1947, and The Town won him the Pulitzer Prize. He also received a grant for literature from the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1959. Richter would receive the Maggie Award in 1959 for his novel The Lady, and The Waters of Kronos would win him the National Book Award in 1961. He has received literary doctorates from Susquehanna University, the University of New Mexico, Lafayette College, Temple University, and Lebanon Valley College. He would receive the Florence R. Head Memorial Award in 1967.

Conrad Richter created and wrote the Awakening Land series. The series started out with the first novel’s publication in 1940, The Trees. The second novel was titled The Fields and was published in 1946. The third novel in the series was titled The Town and was published in 1950. Read the books and then check out the mini-series based on this series!

The Trees is the first novel in the Awakening Land series by Conrad Richter. This is a story that is set in the start of the American movement to go west.

When the eighteenth century was coming to an end, there was a vast amount of land that had been untouched by human hands. Land to the Ohio River’s north and west of the Alleghenies was simply trees as far as the eyes could see. The forest played home to dark trails that were silent and only lit up by sunlight breaking through the limbs above.

This is the tale of the wild family known as the Lucketts, that live in the woods and off of the land. They live a life full of roaming, and move further west as the frontier advances. They struggle to get far enough from the new settlements that are popping up and that could put an end to their solitary lifestyle. Can the family get far away from the ever-encroaching groups of civilization? Read this book and find out!

The Fields is the second novel in the Awakening Land trilogy by author Conrad Richter. This second story continues a story told from the point of view of one character as Ohio slowly becomes transformed from pure nature to farming land and what is finally modern civilization with industry.

This sequel continues to follow the Lucketts, a family that was featured in the first novel. Sayward is the eldest daughter of the family and has started trying to make a farm in the forest. In this story, readers will experience the pioneer life and follow along as she has eight children and struggles to overcome difficulties along the way. Get a copy of this book to find out everything that happens!