A. B. Guthrie, Jr.

Alfred Bertram Guthrie, Jr. (January 13, 1901 – April 26, 1991) was an American novelist, screenwriter, historian, and literary historian who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1950 for his novel The Way West.

Biography

A. B. Guthrie, Jr. was born in Bedford, Indiana, and relocated with his parents to Montana when he was six months old. His father was a graduate of Indiana University, his mother from Earlham College at Richmond, Indiana. "My father came West to become the first principal of the first high school in the Montana territory," he said. Other sources, including Wikipedia note, however, that Helena High School was the first high school in the state, having been formed in September 1876.

Nine Guthrie children were born, but most of them died as infants. A.B. was a sickly child and the Guthries relocated their children to Ontario, California, for their health. Two months later their 13-year-old daughter died from a tick bite and the Guthries relocated back to Montana. There, some months later, their youngest son also died. Only three of the nine children survived to adulthood.