Rex Ellingwood Beach (September 1 1877 – December 7 1949) was an American novelist, playwright, and Olympic water polo player.

Rex Beach was born in Atwood, Michigan to a prominent family and pursued a career as a lawyer before being drawn to Alaska at the time of the Klondike Gold Rush. After five years of unsuccessful prospecting, he turned to writing.

His first novel, The Spoilers was based on a true story of corrupt government officials stealing gold mines from prospectors, which he witnessed while he was prospecting in Nome, Alaska.http://www.miningswindles.com/html/the_spoilers.html The Spoilers became one of the best selling novels of 1906. His adventure novels were immensely popular throughout the early 1900s.

After success in literature, many of his works were adapted into successful films; The Spoilers became a stage play, then was remade into movies five times from 1914 to 1955, with Gary Cooper and John Wayne each playing "Roy Glennister" in 1930 and 1942, respectively.

Beach occasionally produced his films and also wrote a number of plays to varying success. In 1949, two years after the death of his wife Edith, Beach committed suicide in Sebring, Florida at the age of 71. A local urban legend in Sebring was verified in 2005 when the home Beach lived in was remodeled and a bullet found in the wall.

Olympics

In 1904 he was a member of the American water polo team which won the silver medal in the St. Louis Games.

Novels

• The Spoilers (1906)
• The Auction Block (1914)
• The Winds of Chance (1918)
• Heart of the Sunset
• The Silver Horde
• Rainbow's End (1916)
• The Crimson Gardenia and Other Tales of Adventure
• The Iron Trail
• The Net
• The Ne'er-Do-Well
• Going Some
• The Barrier

External links

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