Thomas Savage was an American literary fiction author who was active between 1944 and 1988. He is best known for his Western novels, which were inspired by his personal experiences living in the American West. Savage's writing is characterized by its deep exploration of the human condition, with a particular focus on the complexities of family dynamics and the ways in which individuals are shaped by their environments.
Despite his success as a writer, Savage remained something of a cult figure during his lifetime, with a devoted following among readers and critics but relatively little mainstream recognition. However, in recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in Savage's work, thanks in part to a new generation of readers discovering his novels and to the efforts of his biographer, Charles Shields.
Savage's upbringing in the American West had a profound impact on his writing. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1915, and spent much of his childhood on his family's ranch in Montana. These early experiences exposed him to the harsh realities of frontier life, as well as to the beauty and power of the natural world. This dual fascination with the harshness and beauty of the West would become a recurring theme in his work.
Despite his deep connection to the West, Savage did not limit himself to writing about this region alone. He also explored other parts of the country and different aspects of the human experience in his novels. However, it was his Western novels, such as "The Power of the Dog" and "The Crying of Lot 49," that earned him his greatest acclaim and established him as one of the most important and distinctive voices in American literature.