Archives West Finding Aid

Jack Schaefer, noted 20th century journalist and writer of western novels and short stories, was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1907. He attended school in Lakewood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College with a major in English literature in 1929. Graduation was followed by a year of study at Columbia University, then a year of reporting for the United Press. The Depression years were spent as assistant director of education at the Connecticut State Reformatory, associate editor and later editor, 1933-1942, of the New Haven Courier Journal. Then in 1942 he joined the editorial department of the Baltimore Sun. Gerald Johnson and H. L. Mencken were Schaefer’s colleagues.

In 1949 Schaefer married Louise Deans and Shaefer’s first novel, Shane, appeared in book form. Previously Shane had been serialized in Argosy magazine. The story is seen through the eyes of a young homesteader’s son as a drifter, Shane, comes into the family’s struggle to maintain homesteader rights in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at odds with cattlemen who claimed to rule the range. The novel was later made into a popular Hollywood film in 1953, starring Alan Ladd. After Shane came First Blood in 1953, the tale of a young stage coach driver who reveals courage and achieves manhood during an ambush. Then came a collection of short stories, The Big Range, showing everyday situations in Western life in a dramatic light. Canyon tells the story of the lonely battle of a young Cheyenne Indian who struggles with conformity both within himself and his environment. The Pioneers came out in 1955 followed by Out West, an anthology of western writing. Company of Cowards, a Civil War story, was written at the invitation of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The Kean Land and Other Stories appeared in 1959, Old Ramon in 1960, a novel about an old sheepherder who teaches a young boy the ways of range life. Monte Walsh tells the story of the rise and fall of one cowboy and the eventual demise of the cowboy life with the encroachment of civilization. This novel was also made into a film in 1970, starring Lee Marvin in the title role.

Stubby Pringle’s Christmas, originally written as a short story in 1963, was adapted as a screenplay for television’s Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1967, starring Beau Bridges and Julie Harris.

Jack Schaefer’s books have been translated into Finnish, Swedish, French, Danish, Indonesian, Portuguese, Arabic, Spanish, Slovenian, and German, plus many other languages. Jack Schaefer lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from 1955 until his death in 1991.