Rex Beach

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Rex Ellingwood Beach (born September 1, 1877 in Atwood, Antrim County , Michigan , † December 7, 1949 in Sebring , Florida ) was an American lawyer, writer, playwright and water polo player.

Rex Beach

Life

Rex Beach was born in Atwood, Antrim County , Michigan, to a farmer and teacher. Like his older brothers, he pursued a legal career before coming to Alaska in the wake of the Klondike gold rush . After five years of unsuccessful prospecting and a long study, he embarked on a literary career.

In 1904 he took part in the Olympic Games in St. Louis in the local water polo tournament and won a silver medal with the team of the Chicago Athletic Association .

His first novel, The Spoilers , was published in 1906 and was based, among other things, on a real-life scandal over mine permits. The main female character Cherry Malotte is modeled after Julia Bulette .

The Spoilers became a bestseller in 1906. Excellent reviews described him as " Victor Hugo of the North". Other critics spoke of easily predictable storylines and books in which "strong, hairy men did hairy deeds". According to Stephen Haycox, most of Beach's works are now graciously forgotten . He described The Spoilers as a classic potboiler with simple characters laid out like woodcuts. The novel has been filmed five times so far, including in 1942 under the title The Buccaneer with Marlene Dietrich , Randolph Scott and John Wayne in the leading roles.

Some of Beach's works have been successfully turned into films and plays, some of them by Beach himself. His brother-in-law was the Hollywood actor Fred Stone .

In 1949, Beach committed suicide two years after the death of his wife Edith. He had never got over her death and was also restricted by cancer.

Novels

  • The spoilers. 1906.
  • The barrier. 1908.
  • The Silver Horde. 1909.
  • The Ne'er-Do-Well. 1911.
  • The Net. 1912.
  • The Iron Trail. 1913.
  • The auction block. 1914.
  • Heart of the Sunset. 1915.
  • Rainbow's End. 1916.
  • The Crimson Gardenia and Other Tales of Adventure. 1916.
  • The Winds of Chance. 1918.
  • Flowing gold. 1922.
  • The World in His Arms. 1946.
  • Going some.

Film adaptations of the novels

  • The spoilers . Film, 1914.
  • The auction block. Film, 1917.
  • The Iron Trail. Film, 1921.
  • The spoilers. Film, 1923.
  • A sainted devil. Film, 1924. (German title: The Castro's Blood Wedding )
  • The auction block. 1926.
  • The spoilers. Movie, 1930.
  • Flowing gold. 1940. (German title: The ultimatum for derrick L 9 )
  • The spoilers. Film, 1942.
  • The World in His Arms. 1952.
  • The spoilers. Film, 1955.

Web links

Commons : Rex Beach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Spoilers , mining scandals website
  2. ↑ Gayle and Steve Rajtar: Author Rex Beach's life was the stuff that inspires novels. ( Memento from March 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Winterparkmagazine. 12/2009.
  3. ↑ Stephen Haycox: A Warm Past, Travels in Alaska History. North Press, 1988, p. 113.
personal data
SURNAME Beach, Rex
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beach, Rex Ellingwood
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Atwood, Antrim County , Michigan
DATE OF DEATH December 7, 1949
Place of death Sebring , Florida