John neihardt biography

NEIHARDT, JOHN G. (1881-1973)

Black Elk and John G. Neihardt at the Sioux Victory celebration at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, September 1945

John G. Neihardt was born near Sharpsburg, Illinois, on January 8, 1881.

John neihardt biography

After living for a time in a sod house in western Kansas and then in Kansas City, he moved to Wayne, Nebraska, where he graduated from Nebraska Normal College at age sixteen and wrote and published his first book, The Divine Enchantment (1900), which was based on Vedanta philosophy.

In 1900 Neihardt moved to Bancroft, Nebraska.

He edited the local newspaper, worked as a clerk on the Omaha Reservation, and wrote lyric poetry, short stories, and novels. Outing Magazine commissioned Neihardt to record his experiences on a 2,000-mile trip down the Missouri River in 1908, later published as The River and I (1910).

That same year, Neihardt married Mona Martinsen, a sculptor and former student of Rodin. They had four children: Enid, Sigurd, Hilda, and Alice.

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