Hal Garrott

Hal Garrott is a hard-to-trace early 20th-century American author best known for Snythergen (1923), a whimsical children's fantasy illustrated by Dugald Stewart Walker. His work has remained obscure, but Snythergen has lasted long enough to be preserved by Project Gutenberg, where it is described as a children's fantasy novel from the early 20th century.

A small but intriguing historical reference connects him to journalism on California's Monterey Peninsula. A 1937 source quoted in The Los Angeles Times described him as a former editor of the Carmel Pine Cone, working in collaboration with Perry Newberry.

That same 1937 reference says he had begun a new career as a composer of instrumental music at about age sixty. Beyond that, confirmed biographical details are scarce, which gives Garrott the feel of one of those nearly forgotten writers whose surviving books matter more than the record of their life.