Bromfield, Louis

Bromfield, Louis (1896–1956) writer; born in Mansfield, Ohio. The son of a farmer, Bromfield left the family farm in 1914 when he entered Cornell University to study agriculture. His interest in writing led him to transfer to Columbia University's school of journalism (1915). In 1916 he went to France where he served with distinction with the American Ambulance Corps. After the war, he was awarded an honorary B.A. by Columbia and had a series of jobs in journalism before publishing his first novel, The Green Bay Tree (1924). The rest of the tetralogy followed swiftly: Possession (1925), Early Autumn (Pultizer Prize, 1926), A Good Woman (1927). Success allowed Bromfield to return to Ohio, where his farm, Malabar, was a showcase of modern, scientific agricultural methods. He published short stories and novels throughout the 1930s and 1940s, but none received the acclaim of his early works.