Garland Roark

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.

Contents

Life

In his own words: "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."[1]

Works

Nautical/Adventure Fiction

Western Fiction

Under the pseudonym George Garland unless otherwise noted:

Miscellaneous

Film Adaptations

References

  1. ^ Roark, Garland. Captain Thomas Fenlon: Master Mariner (1958). Kingston House. Quoted on rear dust jacket.
  2. ^ http://www.humanities-interactive.org/literature/east_texas/essay.html.
  3. ^ http://www.westernwriters.org/spur_award_history.htm#1966

External links