Stewart Edward White, early 20th Century Writer

The beginning of adventure novels for men—1901-1920 period.    

A few months ago, I wrote an article for Paperback Parade about Steward Edward White, an early 20th century writer of popular adventure, Westerns, and nonfiction about birds and nature.  He was a conservationist, naturalist, and big game hunter, and his love for nature, conservation, and adventure were to become very much a part of his literary works over his long career.  He enjoyed writing about pioneers, the West, logging, gold mining, and nature.  Stewart once said his books, including his novels, were stories based upon his actual experiences.   

Stewart’s first book, The Westerner was published in 1901.  He was twenty-eight years of age.  That was the beginning of his successful literary career and he would go on to publish more than 50 books and short stories, including Westerns, pioneer and adventure stories, children stories, and nonfiction, over his career that lasted until his death in 1946.

Two of his novels, The Blazed Trail (1902) and the Riverman (1908) were about logging in Michigan.  His  book, The Forty-niners, the California Gold Rush (1918) is an excellent book on the gold rush.   A number of his novels were made into movies and television series.  I've written new Introduction to some of his books. 

As the 19th century was coming to an end, literature centered around women's fiction, written by women.  Best-sellers were stories of childhood, sentimentality, sugary optimism, and overcoming adversity leading to happiness.  It was the success of Jack London's Call of the Wild (1903) that apparently identified the need for men's novels.  According to The Popular Book: A History of American Literary Taste, by James D. Holt and published 1950 by University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Jack London's story "was a perfect symbol of masculine yearning for the primitive."

Holt stated that "other men wrote books largely for their own sex and came to the forefront of popularity with fiction about the outdoor life, set mainly in the Yukon popularized by London, or on the last frontiers of the Northwestern United States and Canada.  Among the most popular authors of this school were Stewart Edward White, Rex Beach, and James Oliver Curwood, all of whom came to prominence just after the opening of the century and made the best-seller lists off and on into the 1920's with new novels, or stayed in high popularity through reprints." 

I was interested in Stewart Edward White partly because of his later nonfiction writing of the paranormal and life after death.  In these nonfiction books he treated the adventure into the world of spirit in very much the same way as he did all his other adventurous journeys throughout his life.  The style of writing reflected that enthusiastic sense of adventure and exploration, even though it was a journey into the unknown, into the self, and into the after-life.  He was able to write about the adventures beyond the veil in very much the same passionate way he wrote about nature and the earthly frontier.