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Louis Bromfield, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1933

Louis Bromfield (December 27, 1896 – March 18, 1956) is one of Mansfield, Ohio's most famous natives, a man who became internationally renowned both as a prize-winning author and as an innovative conservationist and scientific farmer. He was a friend with some of the most celebrated personalities of his era. Malabar Farm near Lucas, Ohio south of Mansfield, was Bromfield's home from 1939 until his death in 1956. It was the location for the wedding of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and draws thousands of visitors each year.

Bromfield studied agriculture at Cornell before transferring to Columbia University to pursue a career in writing. After serving with the American Field Service in World War I and being awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor, he returned to New York City as a reporter. In 1924, his first novel, The Green Bay Tree, won instant acclaim. Two years later, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Early Autumn. Of his 30 books, many, such as The Rains Came and Mrs. Parkington, were made into successful motion pictures.

After returning to spend a decade in France, Bromfield came home to Central Ohio in 1938 and began to put into place the principles of grass-based, sustainable farming at "Malabar Farm." Bromfield's writings turned from fiction to non-fiction and his reputation and influence as a conservationist and farmer continued to expand. Today, Malabar Farm State Park operates under Bromfield's management philosophy. One of the park's best features is the Doris Duke Woods, named after Bromfields's famous friend and philanthropist, Doris Duke, whose donation helped purchase the property after Bromfield's death.

In the 1980s, Louis Bromfield was posthumously elected to the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame and in December 1996, the centennial of his birth, the Ohio Department of Agriculture placed a bust of Louis Bromfield in the lobby named for him at the department's new headquarters in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.

The innovative and visionary work of Louis Bromfield continues to influence agricultural methodologies around the world. Malabar Brazil, under the direction of Ellen Bromfield Geld, has expanded the horizons of her father's principles and pursuits. To insure the work continues well into the 21st century, the Malabar 2000 Foundation plans for developing a center for study at Malabar Farm to further the work begun in Richland County by Louis Bromfield.

The Green Bay Tree, 1924
Possession, 1925
Early Autumn, 1926
A Good Woman, 1927
The House of Women, 1927
The Work of Robert Nathan, 1927
The Strange Case of Miss Annie Spragg, 1928
Awake and Rehearse, 1929
Tabloid News, 1930
Twenty-four Hours, 1930
A Modern Hero, 1932
The Farm, 1933
The Man Who Had Everything, 1935
The Rains Came, 1937
Night in Bombay, 1940
Wild Is the River, 1941
Mrs. Parkington, 1943
What Became of Anna Bolton, 1944
Pleasant Valley, 1945
Bitter Lotus, Cleveland, Ohio: The World Publishing Company, 1945, (german translation by Elisabeth Rotten, Wien, Stuttgart: Humboldt-Verlag, 1941)
A Few Brass Tacks, 1946
Colorado, 1947
Kenny, 1947
Malabar Farm, 1948
Out of the Earth, 1950
Mr. Smith, 1951
The Wealth of the Soil, 1952
Up Ferguson Way, 1953
Animals and Other People, 1955
From My Experience, 1955

• Malabar Farm home page
• Literary Encyclopedia article on Louis Bromfield