Rex Beach

Born in Michigan in 1877, Rex Beach studied at Rollins College and later at law schools in Chicago, but the Klondike Gold Rush pulled him north instead. His years in Alaska did not make him rich as a prospector, yet they gave him the material that shaped his writing career.

Beach became one of the popular adventure novelists of the early 1900s. His best-known book, The Spoilers (1906), drew on corruption and conflict in Nome and was adapted many times for the screen; many of his other novels also became films. In addition to writing novels and plays, he was an accomplished athlete and won a silver medal as a member of the U.S. water polo team at the 1904 Olympics.

He died in 1949 in Florida, leaving behind a body of work closely tied to the rugged, high-stakes world of the northern frontier. Today he is remembered mainly for energetic historical adventure fiction and for the lasting success of The Spoilers.