Fred Grove
Encyclopedia
Fred Grove was a Native American
author and winner of five prestigious "Spur Awards" from Western Writers of America
for his western
novels. He was born in Hominy, Oklahoma
.
cowboy
and an Osage
-Sioux
woman born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
in South Dakota
. His great-grandfather, Henry Chatillon, guided Francis Parkman
on his tour of the Great Plains
, from which evolved the classic book, The Oregon Trail
. Grove was provoked into writing at an early age. The ten-year-old boy was visiting relatives in Fairfax, Oklahoma
, when a wealthy Indian woman's house exploded, killing her and two family members. The novelist graphically recalled details the 1923 murder conspiracy to appropriate the woman's money. Grove's mother was Osage and Sioux, which thrust the tragedy into sharper focus. He remembers "the situation was lawless, with county officials apparently doing little to bring the guilty to justice." A subsequent FBI investigation resulted in prison sentences for two white men, one a cattleman and leading citizen of Fairfax — the other the son-in-law of the murdered woman.
He remembered, "Those were years of fear in Osage County
," he said, "of rumors and threats. As a boy this intrigued me, angered me. I wanted to write about it someday, and air those wrongs." A number of years later, Grove met the FBI agent who directed the investigation, and they collaborated on a non-fiction
book about the incident, but were unable to find a publisher. "It was very discouraging. I spent a year reading state newspapers on microfilm." The result of his extensive research were two novels, Warrior Road and Drum Without Warriors. The first novel was written from a Native American's point of view, the second from an FBI agent posing as a racehorse owner looking for match races, which sparked Grove's latent interest in quarterhorse racing. He also penned Apache
novels, which he has continued to write into his 90s.
Determined to write, Grove earned his B.A. degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma
, class of 1937, where he was a sports editor of the student daily newspaper during his senior year. He later served as sports editor for two dailies before drifting into general news and desk work. "It was during the Depression
and you felt lucky to have a job," he said. "My first one paid $18 a week and I was glad to have it." Grove had attempted to write westerns after World War II
, and interviewed "a lot of Oklahoma pioneers" while working as a reporter for the Shawnee Morning News. "They were wonderful old people who had made the land runs in that state and remembered the 1870s and 80s. This further spurred my interest in the West."
He sold his first short story, "The Hangman Ghost" to .44 Western Magazine in 1951, and taught beginning reporting at the University of Oklahoma as well as a public relations
course. There he took creative writing classes from Foster Harris and Walter Campbell (aka Stanley Vetal). He later served as public information director of the Oklahoma Education Television Authority "until the politicians got hold of OETA, demanding that the staff perform like trained seals."
Grove quit his job and considered it the best career move he ever made. He then wrote his Osage novels and got into quarter horse racing. Flame of the Osage, his first novel, was sold when he was 45 and he said, his writing was more habit than compulsion. "I enjoy writing when I have a feel for the story. Writing hard takes a lot out of you. The finished novel is the real reward for me, a feeling of great relief."
Quarter horse racing became the subject of three of Grove's most successful books: The Great Horse Race, Bush Track, and Match Race. The first and last of these won awards.
Notable among Grove's later fiction is the series of five Jesse Wilder novels set during and after the American Civil War: Bitter Trumpet, Trail of Rogues, Man on a Red Horse, Into the Far Mountains, and A Soldier Returns.
(Source: Maverick Writers (ISBN 0-87004-331-5) by S. Jean Mead (aka Jean Henry-Mead
).
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
author and winner of five prestigious "Spur Awards" from Western Writers of America
Western Writers of America
Western Writers of America, founded 1953, promotes literature, both fiction and non-fiction, pertaining to the American West. Although its founders wrote traditional western fiction, the more than five hundred current members also include historians and other non-fiction writers as well as authors...
for his western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
novels. He was born in Hominy, Oklahoma
Hominy, Oklahoma
Hominy is a city in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 3,565 at the 2010 census, a 38 percent increase from 2,584 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Hominy is located at ....
.
Biography
Grove was the son of a KansasKansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
cowboy
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
and an Osage
Osage Nation
The Osage Nation is a Native American Siouan-language tribe in the United States that originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, the Osage migrated west of the Mississippi River to their historic lands in present-day Arkansas, Missouri,...
-Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
woman born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is an Oglala Sioux Native American reservation located in the U.S. state of South Dakota. Originally included within the territory of the Great Sioux Reservation, Pine Ridge was established in 1889 in the southwest corner of South Dakota on the Nebraska border...
in South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
. His great-grandfather, Henry Chatillon, guided Francis Parkman
Francis Parkman
Francis Parkman was an American historian, best known as author of The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life and his monumental seven-volume France and England in North America. These works are still valued as history and especially as literature, although the biases of his...
on his tour of the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
, from which evolved the classic book, The Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life
The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life is a book written by Francis Parkman. It was originally serialized in twenty-one installments in Knickerbocker's Magazine and subsequently published as a book in 1849.The book is a breezy, first-person account of a 2 month summer tour...
. Grove was provoked into writing at an early age. The ten-year-old boy was visiting relatives in Fairfax, Oklahoma
Fairfax, Oklahoma
Fairfax is a town in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,380 at the 2010 census, down 11.3 percent from 1,555 at the 2000 census.-History:...
, when a wealthy Indian woman's house exploded, killing her and two family members. The novelist graphically recalled details the 1923 murder conspiracy to appropriate the woman's money. Grove's mother was Osage and Sioux, which thrust the tragedy into sharper focus. He remembers "the situation was lawless, with county officials apparently doing little to bring the guilty to justice." A subsequent FBI investigation resulted in prison sentences for two white men, one a cattleman and leading citizen of Fairfax — the other the son-in-law of the murdered woman.
He remembered, "Those were years of fear in Osage County
Osage County, Oklahoma
Osage County is a county in the northern part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Coterminous with the Osage Indian Reservation, it is the home of the federally recognized Osage Nation. As of the 2010 census, the population was 47,472 a 6.8 percent increase from 2000, when the population was 44,437...
," he said, "of rumors and threats. As a boy this intrigued me, angered me. I wanted to write about it someday, and air those wrongs." A number of years later, Grove met the FBI agent who directed the investigation, and they collaborated on a non-fiction
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
book about the incident, but were unable to find a publisher. "It was very discouraging. I spent a year reading state newspapers on microfilm." The result of his extensive research were two novels, Warrior Road and Drum Without Warriors. The first novel was written from a Native American's point of view, the second from an FBI agent posing as a racehorse owner looking for match races, which sparked Grove's latent interest in quarterhorse racing. He also penned Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
novels, which he has continued to write into his 90s.
Determined to write, Grove earned his B.A. degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
, class of 1937, where he was a sports editor of the student daily newspaper during his senior year. He later served as sports editor for two dailies before drifting into general news and desk work. "It was during the Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and you felt lucky to have a job," he said. "My first one paid $18 a week and I was glad to have it." Grove had attempted to write westerns after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and interviewed "a lot of Oklahoma pioneers" while working as a reporter for the Shawnee Morning News. "They were wonderful old people who had made the land runs in that state and remembered the 1870s and 80s. This further spurred my interest in the West."
He sold his first short story, "The Hangman Ghost" to .44 Western Magazine in 1951, and taught beginning reporting at the University of Oklahoma as well as a public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
course. There he took creative writing classes from Foster Harris and Walter Campbell (aka Stanley Vetal). He later served as public information director of the Oklahoma Education Television Authority "until the politicians got hold of OETA, demanding that the staff perform like trained seals."
Grove quit his job and considered it the best career move he ever made. He then wrote his Osage novels and got into quarter horse racing. Flame of the Osage, his first novel, was sold when he was 45 and he said, his writing was more habit than compulsion. "I enjoy writing when I have a feel for the story. Writing hard takes a lot out of you. The finished novel is the real reward for me, a feeling of great relief."
Quarter horse racing became the subject of three of Grove's most successful books: The Great Horse Race, Bush Track, and Match Race. The first and last of these won awards.
Notable among Grove's later fiction is the series of five Jesse Wilder novels set during and after the American Civil War: Bitter Trumpet, Trail of Rogues, Man on a Red Horse, Into the Far Mountains, and A Soldier Returns.
(Source: Maverick Writers (ISBN 0-87004-331-5) by S. Jean Mead (aka Jean Henry-Mead
Jean Henry-Mead
Jean Henry Mead is an American novelist, award-winning photojournalist, historian and editor/publisher. She has also written under the names: Jean Henry, Jean Mead, and S...
).
Awards
- 1963: Owen Wister AwardOwen Wister AwardOwen Wister Award is an annual award from the Western Writers of America given to lifelong contributions to the field of Western literature. Named for writer Owen Wister , it is given for "Outstanding Contributions to the American West".Originally given for "best book of the year", it was expanded...
- Grove has won five Spur AwardSpur AwardThe Spur Award is an annual literary prize awarded by the Western Writers of America. Founded in 1953 with only four categories , the award today has expanded to include the following categories:...
s, given annually by the Western Writers of AmericaWestern Writers of AmericaWestern Writers of America, founded 1953, promotes literature, both fiction and non-fiction, pertaining to the American West. Although its founders wrote traditional western fiction, the more than five hundred current members also include historians and other non-fiction writers as well as authors...
. He won three Spur Awards for novels and two for short stories:- 1961: Comanche Captives
- 1962: "Comanche Woman"
- 1968: "When the Caballos Came"
- 1977: The Great Horse Race
- 1982: Match Race
- Grove has also won two Western Heritage Awards, given annually by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage MuseumNational Cowboy & Western Heritage MuseumThe National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of American rodeo, photographs, barbed wire, saddlery, and early rodeo trophies...
:- 1961: "Comanche Son"
- 1968: The Buffalo Runners
- Grove received a Distinguished Service Award from Western New Mexico UniversityWestern New Mexico UniversityWestern New Mexico University, a public university located in Silver City, New Mexico, has served the people of the state of New Mexico and its surrounding areas as a comprehensive, regional, rural, public coeducational university since 1893 and caters to a student body diverse in age, culture,...
for his fiction set on the Apache frontier.
Novels
- Flame of the Osage (1958)
- Sun Dance (1958)
- No Bugles, No Glory (1959)
- Comanche Captives (1961)
- The Land Seekers (1963)
- Buffalo Spring (1967)
- The Buffalo Runners (1968)
- War Journey (1971)
- The Child Stealers (1973)
- Warrior Road (1974)
- Sanaco (1974)
- Drum Without Warriors (1976)
- The Great Horse Race (1977)
- Bush Track (1978)
- The Running Horses (1980)
- The Phantom Warrior (1981)
- Match Race (1982)
- A Far Trumpet (1985)
- Search for the Breed (1986)
- Deception Trail (1988)
- Bitter Trumpet (1989)
- Trail of Rogues (1993)
- Man on a Red Horse (1998)
- Into the Far Mountains (1999)
- Destiny Valley (2000)
- A Distance of Ground (2000)
- The Years of Fear (2002)
- The Spring of Valor (2003)
- The Vanishing Raiders (2005)
- A Soldier Returns (2006)
- Trouble Hunter (2006)