Garland Roark
Encyclopedia
Garland Roark was an American author (July 26, 1904-February 9, 1985) best known for his nautical/adventure fiction. Published in 1946, his first novel Wake of the Red Witch was a Literary Guild selection and later adapted by Republic Pictures
as a movie
starring John Wayne
.
"I was born in Groesbeck, Texas
. My father died when I was four and my mother began to teach school. Before I was five I had learned to read and write and discovered a talent for drawing which developed over the years until my ambition was to first become a cartoonist, then an illustrator. I delivered the Dallas Journal every morning, taking as pay watercolor lessons, and during the great hurricane of 1915 when I was ten, I was considered quite a hero for having delivered the paper, even though flying tin roofs sailed about me. My education was cut short after a year of college when I went to work to help support my mother and young sister. I was a soda-fountain boy, a sign painter, a door-to-door magazine salesman; I worked in the oil fields and aboard cargo vessels plying the Mexican Gulf and Caribbean Sea
, where I met many odd but wonderful characters who appear in my works of sea fiction.
"Later I got a job as a window display artist and fulfilled my desire for education by studying nights. I became an avid reader of every subject and increased my powers of observation of people and life. I began writing during the 1940s and after several rejections my book, Wake of the Red Witch, became a Literary Guild selection in 1946."
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
as a movie
Wake of the Red Witch
Wake of the Red Witch is a 1948 drama film from Republic Pictures starring John Wayne and Gail Russell, produced by Edmund Grainger, and based upon the novel by Garland Roark...
starring John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
.
Life
In his own words:"I was born in Groesbeck, Texas
Groesbeck, Texas
Groesbeck is a city in and the county seat of Limestone County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,291 at the 2000 census. The community is named after a railroad employee.- History :...
. My father died when I was four and my mother began to teach school. Before I was five I had learned to read and write and discovered a talent for drawing which developed over the years until my ambition was to first become a cartoonist, then an illustrator. I delivered the Dallas Journal every morning, taking as pay watercolor lessons, and during the great hurricane of 1915 when I was ten, I was considered quite a hero for having delivered the paper, even though flying tin roofs sailed about me. My education was cut short after a year of college when I went to work to help support my mother and young sister. I was a soda-fountain boy, a sign painter, a door-to-door magazine salesman; I worked in the oil fields and aboard cargo vessels plying the Mexican Gulf and Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....
, where I met many odd but wonderful characters who appear in my works of sea fiction.
"Later I got a job as a window display artist and fulfilled my desire for education by studying nights. I became an avid reader of every subject and increased my powers of observation of people and life. I began writing during the 1940s and after several rejections my book, Wake of the Red Witch, became a Literary Guild selection in 1946."
- Garland Roark later lived and worked in Nacogdoches, TexasNacogdoches, TexasNacogdoches is a city in Nacogdoches County, Texas, in the United States. The 2010 census recorded the city's population to be 32,996. It is the county seat of Nacogdoches County and is situated in East Texas. Nacogdoches is a sister city of Natchitoches, Louisiana.Nacogdoches is the home of...
. On September 14, 1939, he married the former Leola Elisabeth Burke. He dedicated to her two of his novels and esteemed her as "the world’s greatest literary critic.” Together, Roark and Leola had two daughters: Sharon and Wanda, respectively.
- Favorite hobby: watercoloring.
- Spent one year at West Texas State Teachers College (West Texas A&M UniversityWest Texas A&M UniversityWest Texas A&M University , part of the Texas A&M University System, is a public university located in Canyon, Texas, a small city south of Amarillo. West Texas A&M opened on September 20, 1910...
).
- In 1954, Texas Governor Allan ShiversAllan ShiversRobert Allan Shivers was a Texas politician who led the conservative faction of the Texas Democratic Party during the turbulent 1940s and 1950s...
appointed Roark an Honorary Admiral in the Texas NavyTexas NavyThe Texas Navy was the official navy of the Republic of Texas. Two Texas Navies were naval fighting forces. There is a “Third and Honorary” Texas Navy, in which officers are commissioned by the Governor of Texas as Admirals, Commanders and Lieutenants....
.
- He also contributed numerous historical articles to the Houston ChronicleHouston ChronicleThe Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
.
- Catalogued as the Garland Roark Collection, Roark's lifework has been deposited in the archives of Stephen F. Austin State UniversityStephen F. Austin State UniversityStephen F. Austin State University is a public university located in Nacogdoches, Texas, United States. Founded as a teachers' college in 1923, the university was named after one of Texas' founding fathers, Stephen F. Austin. Its campus resides on part of the homestead of another Texas founding...
's Ralph W. Steen Library. (To view a list of its contents, access the first External Link below.)
Nautical/Adventure Fiction
- Wake of the Red Witch (1946). Little, Brown and Company. Novel.
- Fair Wind to Java (1948). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel.
- Rainbow in the Royals (1950). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel.
- Slant of the Wild Wind (1952). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel.
- The Wreck of the Running Gale (1953). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel.
- The Diver of the Rebecque (1953). Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. Short story published in the Vol. 1, No. 1 Winter issue of THE SEVEN SEAS pulp magazine, pp. 4–27.
- Star in the Rigging (1954). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel.
- The Outlawed Banner (1956). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel.
- The Lady and the Deep Blue Sea (1958). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel. (Original manuscript title Challenge of the Seas).
- The Gallant Captain Ross (1958). Davis Publications, Inc. Short story published in the Vol. 1, No. 1 October issue of JACK LONDON'S ADVENTURE MAGAZINE, pp. 63–72.
- Tales of the Caribbean (1959). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Short story collection. (cf James Michener's Tales of the South PacificTales of the South PacificTales of the South Pacific is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, which is a collection of sequentially related short stories about World War II, written by James A. Michener in 1946 and published in 1947...
) - Should the Wind be Fair (1960). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel.
- The Witch of Manga Reva (1962). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel.
- Bay of Traitors (1966). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel.
- Angels in Exile (1967). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel.
Western Fiction
Under the pseudonym George Garland unless otherwise noted:- Doubtful Valley (1951). Houghton Mifflin Company. Novel.
- The Big Dry (1952). Houghton Mifflin Company. Novel.
- Mogollon (1956). 15-page story published exclusively in newspapers. (e.g. The Star Weekly, Toronto, Canada, July 28, 1956). As Garland Roark.
- Apache Warpath (1959). New American Library/Signet Books. Novel.
- Bugles and Brass (1964). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel.
- Hellfire Jackson (1966). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Historical Novel. As Garland Roark. Co-written by Charles Thomas. A Western Writers of America, Spur Award winner.
- The Eye of the Needle (1970). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel.
- Slow Wind in the West (1973). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel.
Miscellaneous
- The Cruel Cocks (1957). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel re cockfightCockfightA cockfight is a blood sport between two roosters , held in a ring called a cockpit. Cockfighting is now illegal throughout all states in the United States, Brazil, Australia and in most of Europe. It is still legal in several U.S. territories....
ing in Louisiana. - Captain Thomas Fenlon: Master Mariner (1958). Julian Messner, Inc. Biographical novel.
- Diamond Six: The Saga of a Fighting Family from Kentucky to Texas (1958). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Biography. Written by William Fielding Smith. Edited by Garland Roark.
- The 25 Flags of Texas (1961). Historical pamphlet.
- The Coin of Contraband (1964). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Biographical novel.
- Drill a Crooked Hole (1968). Doubleday & Company, Inc. Novel re Texas oil fields.