Fred Gipson
Fred Gipson was an American author born and raised in Mason, Texas, where the landscape and culture significantly influenced his writing. He is best known for his novels aimed at young readers, particularly "Hound-Dog Man" (1949), "Old Yeller" (1956), and "Savage Sam" (1962). Growing up in a large family, Gipson developed a love for storytelling from his father, despite having limited formal education. After graduating from high school in 1926, he held various jobs until attending the University of Texas at Austin, where he honed his writing skills.
Gipson's literary career blossomed after he began publishing Western stories and eventually novels that drew on his Texas upbringing. His most acclaimed work, "Old Yeller," received the Newbery Honor and was adapted into a Disney film in 1958. However, his later life was marked by personal struggles, including health issues and family tragedies, which affected his happiness and productivity. Despite these challenges, Gipson continued to write until his death in 1973, leaving behind a legacy that includes posthumously published works. His contributions to children's literature reflect the realities of rural Texas life and the bond between humans and animals.
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Fred Gipson
Writer
- Born: February 7, 1908
- Birthplace: Mason, Texas
- Died: August 14, 1973
- Place of death: Mason, Texas
Biography
Fred Gipson was born and died in the small rural town of Mason, Texas. The town and the region were central in both his life and his work, particularly in the novels for young people for which he is best known: Hound-Dog Man (1949), Old Yeller (1956), and Savage Sam (1962). He was at his happiest and most productive when he could draw upon his youthful experiences in the Texas hill country. Gipson, one of seven children of Beckton and Emma (Dieshler) Gipson, especially credited his father, who had little formal education but who was an avid hunter and an accomplished storyteller, as the source for his storytelling ability.
From his rural home, Gipson walked, often barefooted, four miles a day each way to school in Mason; he graduated from Mason High School in 1926. He worked on neighboring ranches and explored the woods around his home, fishing, hunting, and observing nature. For seven years after high school—which included a few years at the beginning of the Depression—he tried his hand at bookkeeping, working on a goat drive, building roads, and working as a day laborer. From 1933 to 1937 he attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he majored in journalism and received awards for his writing. He left college in 1937 to work as a reporter in Corpus Christi.
In 1940 Gipson married Tommie Eloise Wynn of San Angelo, and they eventually had two children, Philip Michael and Thomas Beckton. Soon after his marriage, Gipson was fired from his newspaper job, and he moved with his wife back to his family home in Mason. Gipson embarked upon his career as a writer, selling Western stories to magazines. Following a successful 1946 biography of Zack Miller, who was a proprietor of Wild West shows, Gipson turned to writing novels. He published Hound-Dog Man, which is based on the life of Gipson’s hill country acquaintance Charlie Sanders.
Gipson reached the height of his career with Old Yeller, which was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1957. Set in the 1860’s and based on an incident in Gipson’s grandfather’s life, the novel tells the story of fourteen-year-old Travis and his dog Old Yeller, who must care for the family ranch during the father’s absence. Disney Studios released a film version of the novel in 1958.
At the height of his career, Gipson began to suffer a series of health and personal problems, including intense back pain, an ulcer, and depression. He was unhappy being displaced from Texas to California, where he was working on screen adaptations for his novels. After he returned to Texas in 1962, his dog, the model for Savage Sam, was found clubbed to death, his elder son Mike committed suicide, and, two years later, he and his wife divorced.
Gipson continued to write, travel (particularly to Mexico), and give lectures. In 1967 he married his secretary, Angelina Torres, whom he divorced six months later. He was named a fellow of the Texas Institute of Letters in 1970. Two manuscripts found after Gipson’s death in 1973 were published posthumously as Little Arliss (1978) and Curly and the Wild Boar (1980).