Phil Stong

Philip Duffield Stong (January 27, 1899 – April 26, 1957) He is best known for the 1932 novel State Fair, which was adapted as a film in 1933, 1945, 1962 and 1976, and as a Broadway musical in 1996.

Biography Stong was born in Pittsburg, Iowa, near Keosauqua. His father operated the general store, which is now an antique store. The 1844 brick house where Stong was born is located adjacent to the store and is now a private residence. He attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Stong scored his first success in 1932 with the publication of his famous novel, State Fair, which was first adapted for the screen in the 1933 film of the same name starring Will Rogers. It received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. In 1945, Rodgers and Hammerstein adapted it into a film musical of the same name. Subsequent versions were made in 1962 and 1976. And in 1996 it was made into a Broadway musical. His novel Career was adapted to the screen twice, in 1939, starring Anne Shirley and again in 1959, starring Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine. His novel Stranger's Return was also made into a motion picture, starring Academy Award winning actor Lionel Barrymore.

In 1968, his book Way Down Cellar was made into a television film for Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. It starred Richard Bakalyan, Ben Wright, Butch Patrick, and Grace Lee Whitney.

About his writing career, he once said, "Fell while trying to clamber out of a low bathtub at the age of two. Became a writer. No other possible career."

In a poll carried out by the Saturday Review of Literature asking American writers which Presidential candidate they endorsed in the 1940 election, Stong stated that he had voted for Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1936 election, but that he was now going to vote for Wendell Willkie.

Stong created a 466-page anthology published by Wilfred Funk in 1941, The Other Worlds, later issued with the descriptive subtitle 25 Modern Stories of Mystery and Imagination.

Juvenile Honk, the Moose (1935; Newbery Medal Honor Book) Farm Boy: A Hunt for Indian Treasure (1934) Phil Stong's Big Book: Farm Boy; High Water; No-Sitch, The Hound (1937) Young Settler The Hired Man's Elephant (1939) Captain Kidd's Cow (1941) Way Down Cellar (1942) Censored, the Goat (1945)

State Fair and Marta of Muscovy were published as Armed Services Editions during WWII.