Hugh Pendexter Explained

Hugh Pendexter
Birth Date:January 15, 1875
Birth Place:Pittsfield, Maine
Death Date:June 11, 1940
Occupation:Novelist, screenwriter
Citizenship:U.S.A
Alma Mater:Lewiston High, Lewiston, Maine
Period:1907–1934
Spouse:Helen M. Faunce

Hugh Pendexter (1875–1940) was an American journalist, novelist, and screenwriter.

Biography

For much of his life, Pendexter lived in Norway, Maine.[1] He spent several years as a teacher of Latin and Greek in Maine High schools and left that work to enter newspaper work in Rochester, N. Y. where he worked on the Rochester Post Express. After twelve years as news writer he returned to Norway, where he married Helen M. Faunce, and devoted his entire time to fiction writing. Pendexter was a friend of the writer Talbot Mundy.[2]

Work

Pendexter began his career as a humorous writer; some of this early work was anthologised in Mark Twain's book series, Library of Humor.[3] Pendexter's main body of fiction consisted of historical novels and Westerns for such publications as Adventure and Argosy.[4] Pendexter was known for his detailed research when writing fiction; his stories were "often accompanied with extensive reading lists of the books that were used in writing the story".[5] For Short Stories magazine, Pendexter wrote a series of mystery stories featuring "Jeff Fanchon, Inquirer". Fanchon was a Manhattan-based detective of partial Native American ancestry.[6] For the same publication Pendexter created deliberately comical Western stories about Hiram Polk, The Shorthorn Kid. Pendexter's Red Trails and The Shadow of the Tomahawk revolve around the struggle between frontiersmen and Native Americans during Dunmore's War. Pendexter's novel, Kings of the Missouri about fur trading and the founding of St. Louis, is regarded by some critics as his best work.

Bibliography

Movies

Notes and References

  1. Stotter, Mike, "Pendexter, Hugh" in Sadler, Geoff (ed.), Twentieth Century Western Writers. Chicago and London, St. James Press, 1991,, pp. 537-9.
  2. [Donald M. Grant|Grant, Donald M.]
  3. Pendexter, Hugh, "Billy Campbell's Jungle Story", in Twain, Mark (ed.) Mark Twain's Library of Humor, Volume 2. New York; Harper & Brothers, 1906 (p.223).
  4. http://www.philsp.com/homeville/fmi/s2276.htm#A78142
  5. by Bleiler, Richard. "Forgotten Giant: Hoffman’s Adventure". Purple Prose Magazine, November 1998, p. 3-12.
  6. Lewis, Evan, "Introduction", The Voice of the Night: The Cases of Jeff Fanchon, Inquirer. Black Dog Books, 2015. Normal, IL. (pp.7-9)