Mari Sandoz

Novelist

Mari Sandoz was born in Sheridan County, Nebraska, United States on May 11th, 1896 and is the Novelist. At the age of 69, Mari Sandoz biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.

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Date of Birth
May 11, 1896
Nationality
United States
Place of Birth
Sheridan County, Nebraska, United States
Death Date
Mar 10, 1966 (age 69)
Zodiac Sign
Taurus
Profession
Biographer, Historian, Novelist, Teacher, Writer
Mari Sandoz Height, Weight, Eye Color and Hair Color

At 69 years old, Mari Sandoz physical status not available right now. We will update Mari Sandoz's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

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Mari Sandoz Religion, Education, and Hobbies
Religion
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Hobbies
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Education
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Mari Sandoz Spouse(s), Children, Affair, Parents, and Family
Spouse(s)
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Children
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Dating / Affair
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Parents
Jules Ami, Mary Elizabeth (Fehr) Sandoz
Mari Sandoz Life

Mari Susette Sandoz (1896-1966), a Nebraska novelist, biographer, lecturer, and mentor.

She became one of West's finest writers and wrote extensively about pioneer life and the Plains Indians.

She was given the Newbery Medal.

Early life and education

Marie Susette Sandoz was born near Hay Springs, Nebraska, on May 11, 1896, she was the eldest of six children born to Swiss immigrants, Jules and Mary Elizabeth Sandoz. (Fehr) Sandoz. She spoke only German until the age of nine. Her father was described as a ferocious and domineering man who ruled out her writing and reading. Her childhood was spent on the family farm, and she developed snow blindness in one eye after a day of digging the family's cattle out of a snowdrift.

She graduated from the eighth grade at the age of 17 and passed the rural teachers' exam. She taught in nearby country schools without ever attending high school. Sandoz married Wray Macumber, a neighboring rancher, at the age of eighteen. She was unhappy in the marriage, and in 1919, she cited "serious mental cruelty" as the reason for her husband's divorce and moved to Lincoln.

Early writings

Mari worked a variety of low-paying professions over the next 16 years, as well as writing—total failure—under her married name, Marie Macumber. Despite her inability to obtain a high school diploma, she was able to enroll at the University of Nebraska due to a compassionate dean. During those years, she said she had received over a thousand rejection slips for her short stories.

She visited her family in 1928, when she learned word her father was dying, and was stunned by his last request: he begged her to write his life story. She began extensive research into his life and chronicled his decision to become a pioneer, his tireless service on the prairie, his contribution to the pioneer movement, and his community's association with the local Indians in the area. Old Jules was released under the name Mari Sandoz, which she had used before 1929.

She returned home to the Sand Hills in 1933, hungry and in poor shape, in order to remain with her mother. Old Jules had been refused by every major publishing house in the United States. Sandoz tossed over 70 of her manuscripts into a washing tub in her backyard and burned them before she left Lincoln.

Still, she continued to write and started planning on her next book, Slogum House, a gritty and realistic story about a ruthless Nebraska family. She returned to Lincoln in 1934 and began working at the Nebraska State Historical Society, where she became associate editor of Nebraska History magazine.

After fourteen rejections, she was told that her updated version of Old Jules had won a non-fiction contest run by Atlantic Press in 1935. Her book will eventually be published. However, she had to fight her editor to keep the book's recognizable Western idiom because her publishers wanted her to standardize the English used in the book.

When it was first published, the book was both critically and commercially, and it was designated as a Book of the Month Club pick. Some readers were taken aback by her unromantic portrayal of the Old West, as well as her strong language and realistic representation of the hardships of frontier life.

Later life and works

Sandoz published Slogum House in 1937, a novel set in the Sandhills that warned of fascism's rise. The book was chastised for being filthy, and both McCook and Omaha's libraries barred it from their respective libraries in 1938. Sandoz took the Shurtleff Arms at 645 South 17th Street during this period. This is the only working Lincoln home in Sandoz. Capital City (1939), she wrote her second book, Capital City (1939), which gave her notoriety of a different sort: hate mail and threats. Slogum House was considered an assault on rural Nebraskans' character, and Capital City was regarded as an assault on Lincoln's city.

Sandoz moved to Denver in 1940, partly to escape the backlash, but also for improved research centers. She moved to New York City later in 1943 to gain the West's research data and be close to her publishers.

Crazy Horse, the great Lakota chief, was published in 1942. It's called Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas. Sandoz demonstrated to be ahead of her time by writing the biography from within the Lakota world view, using Lakota terms and metaphors, as well as imitating Lakota speech patterns. Some commentators regard it as her best work. In her preface to Crazy Horse, she says: "She has a dream."

Her obsessive attention to detail, in-depth analysis, and her admiration of the Plains Indian culture are all present in later works including Cheyenne Autumn (1953), The Horsecatcher (1957), and The Story Catcher (1963).

The Buffalo Hunters (1954), one of her best-known books, The Cattlemen (1958), and The Beaver Men (1964) explore the West's past in relation to an animal species.

Sandoz loved to encourage other writers. She held summer writing workshops at universities such as the University of Wisconsin–Madison, reviewed manuscripts sent to her by aspiring writers, made constructive suggestions, and taught creative writing by Nebraska Educational Television. "pick a subject you are familiar with well and write about it," she advised writers. Sandoz continued writing even within a month of her death from bone cancer in 1966.

She was buried south of Gordon, Nebraska, on a hillside overlooking her family's Sandhills ranch by her request.

In the Nebraska State Capitol, a bust of Sandoz and others of the Nebraska Hall of Fame are on display. An historical marker erected by the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society is on display in the museum where she lived when writing Old Jules.

Source

Mari Sandoz Awards

Awards

  • 1950 - An honorary Doctorate of Literature from the University of Nebraska.
  • 1954 - The Distinguished Achievement Award of the Native Sons and Daughters of Nebraska for her "sincere and realistic presentation of Nebraska as it was."
  • 1958 - John Newbery Honor Medal for The Horsecatcher.
  • 1963 - Spur Award for best Juvenile fiction for The Story Catcher.
  • 1964 - Saddleman Award now called the Owen Wister Award for The Story Catcher.
  • 1969 - The Mari Sandoz Award is established by the Nebraska Library Association. It is given annually to "significant, enduring contribution to the Nebraska book world through writing, film production, or related activity."
  • 1975-76 - Inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame.
  • 1998 - Inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.