Wessel H. Smitter

Wessel Hyatt Smitter
BornMay 9, 1892
Plainfield, Michigan
DiedNovember 7, 1951
Eureka, California
EducationCalvin College
OccupationNovelist
SpouseFaith
Children3

Wessel Hyatt Smitter was an American novelist. He was born in Plainfield, Michigan and attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan from 1912 to 1917. Smitter worked the early part of his career in advertising for one of the "Big 3" auto makers. He soon left that career and moved to California, where he worked selling and transplanting trees and wrote on the side. In 1938, he published F.O.B. Detroit, which was made into the 1941 movie, Reaching for the Sun, starring Joel McCrae and Ellen Drew.[1]

Smitter's anti-industrial views, particularly of the auto industry in Michigan, where he began his career, permeate his creative works. His obituary was published in the New York Times on November 9, 1951 (p. 27)[2]

Partial bibliography

Novels

  • F.O.B. Detroit Harper and Bros. (1938)[3]
  • Another Morning Harper & Brothers (1941)[4]

Short stories

References

  1. ^ "Wessel Smitter Collection, 1934-1973, Heritage Hall, Hekman Library". Calvin College. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  2. ^ "Wessel Smitter, 59, Novelist, Succumbs". The New York Times. November 9, 1951. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  3. ^ "A Dramatic Novel of Industry; In "F. O. B. Detroit" Wessel Smitter Writes With Power of Men Pitted Against Economic Forces". The New York Times. November 6, 1938. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  4. ^ "Settlers in Alaska; ANOTHER MORNING". The New York Times. April 20, 1941. Retrieved 31 July 2021.


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