Glendon Swarthout
| Glendon Swarthout | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Glendon Fred Swarthout April 8, 1918 Pinckney, Michigan |
| Died | September 23, 1992 (aged 74) Scottsdale, Arizona |
| Occupation | Writer, novelist |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
Glendon Fred Swarthout (April 8, 1918, near Pinckney, Michigan – September 23, 1992, Scottsdale, Arizona) was an American writer and novelist.
One of his best known novels was made into a film of the same title, Where the Boys Are, along with The Shootist which was made into the 1976 John Wayne film of the same name, Wayne's last cinematic appearance.
Glendon Swarthout was the only child of Fred and Lila Swarthout, a banker and a homemaker. Swarthout is a Dutch name and his mother's maiden name was Chubb, from English farmers of Yorkshire. Swarthout's academic career was excellent, especially in English, and his writing aspirations were encouraged, for he was a Michigan high school debate champion.
In math, however, he floundered, and only a kindly lady geometry teacher passed him with a D so that he could graduate from Lowell, Michigan High School. He took accordion lessons and occupied his free time with books, for at 6 feet, 99 pounds, he was not good at sports. The summer of his junior year he got a job playing his instrument in the resort town of Charlevoix, on Lake Michigan, with Jerry Schroeder and his Michigan State College Orchestra, for ten dollars per week.
Graduating in 1935, he relocated to Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan. He became more seriously involved in music, forming and singing lead for a four-piece band that played for hops and for three consecutive summers at the Pantlind Hotel in Grand Rapids, the largest hotel in Michigan outside of Detroit.
Glendon majored in English at the U. of M., pledged Chi Phi, and dated Kathryn Vaughn, whom he had met when he was thirteen and she twelve, at her family's cottage on Duck Lake, outside of Albion, Michigan. They were married on December 28, 1940, after both had graduated from the U. of M. and Swarthout was writing ad copy for Cadillac and Dow Chemical at the MacManus, John & Adams advertising agency in Detroit.
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