Richard A. Summers papers

Richard A. Summers was a prolific writer of young adult and adult novels, short stories, and plays, as well as a professor of English at the University of Arizona and a city councilman.

Born in Wisconsin in 1906, he moved to Tucson as a teenager because of his father’s career as a professor at the University of Arizona. Summers graduated from Tucson High School and then from the University of Arizona at the age 19. After graduation he became a principal of a local school. He returned to the University of Arizona to teach English in 1928 and that same year he married Anna Louise McKee, with whom he had three children: Sanford, Anne, and Amo.

He began his prolific writing career in the late 1920s, and is most well-known for his 1937 novel Dark Madonna which dealt with the Latino community in 1930s Tucson and was hailed as a minor classic by critics. His fiction work was adapted to screenplays, including the 1951 movie The San Francisco Story, which was adapted from his novel Vigilante. His radio plays were used across the country by the Junior League and were often retellings of American Indian stories and myths. His works also include a few textbooks like College Composition with David Patrick and later Craft of the Short Story, which became a popular creative writing textbook during the time.

Summers was elected onto the Tucson City Council and served one term before he returned to teaching at the University following his leave of absence. He continued writing and editing work by other writers, along with teaching. He died in 1969 of complications from emphysema.