Novelist Mildred Walker Dies

Novelist Mildred Walker died at a care center here Wednesday of natural causes. She was 93.

Walker published 12 adult novels and one novel for young readers. The adult novels have recently been reprinted by the University of Nebraska Press for its Bison Books series.

Walker was for many years a Montana resident and four of her novels were set in Montana: “Unless the Wind Turns,” “Winter Wheat,” “The Curlew’s Cry” and “If a Lion Could Talk.” A play and TV show were based on her work, “The Southwest Corner.”

Walker was born May 2, 1905, in Philadelphia. In 1926 she graduated magna cum laude in literature from Wells College in Aurora, N.Y.

She married Ferdinand Schemm, a noted cardiologist, in 1927 in Philadelphia. They lived in Michigan, where Walker earned her master of arts degree in English literature in 1933 at University of Michigan, and completed her first novel, “Fireweed.” It received the biggest prize then awarded at a U.S. university, the Avery Hopwood Award, and $1,500, and was published in 1934.

She published 10 novels between 1933 and 1955.

Walker moved to Missoula in 1986 to live near her daughter and in 1990 moved to Portland to be near her son.