A.B. Guthrie Jr.(1901-1991)

American story writer and author of novels which chronicle the settling of the American West from 1830. With the exception of These Thousand Hills (1959), Guthrie depicted a rugged, generally unromanticised West, his works often filled with accurate historical detail. He attended the University of Washington (1919-20) and graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Montana in 1923. A former journalist and executive editor of the Lexington Reader (1926-47), he won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1950 novel 'The Way West'. His best-known filmed works are The Big Sky (1952) (written in 1947, about a 19th century beaver trapper) and his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Shane (1953). Guthrie later became a staunch environmentalist, donating 80 acres to the Nature Conservancy's Pine Butte Swamp Preserve a year prior to his death.