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Louis Bromfield (December 27, 1896 - March 18, 1956) is one of Mansfield, Ohios most famous natives, a man who became internationally renowned both as a prize-winning author and as an innovative conservationist and scientific farmer. He was a friend with some of the most celebrated personalities of his era. Malabar Farm, his home in Lucas, Ohio, from 1939 until his death in 1956, the setting for the wedding of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, still draws thousands of visitors each year.
Bromfield studied agriculture at Cornell before transferring to Columbia University to pursue a career in writing. After serving in World War I and being awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor, he returned to New York City as a reporter. In 1924, his first novel, The Green Bay Tree, won instant acclaim. Two years later, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Early Autumn. Of his 30 books, many--such as The Rains Came and Mrs. Parkington, were made into successful motion pictures.
After a decade in France, Bromfield returned to Central Ohio in 1938 and began to put into place the principles of grass-based, sustainable farming at Malabar Farm. His writings turned from fiction to non-fiction and his reputation and influence as a conservationist and farmer continued to expand. In the 1980s he was posthumously elected to the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame and in December 1996, the centennial of this birth, the Ohio Department of Agriculture placed a bust of Louis Bromfield in the lobby named for him at the departments new headquarters in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.
The innovative and visionary work of Louis Bromfield continues to influence agricultural methodologies around the world. Malabar Brazil, under the direction of Ellen Bromfield Geld, has expanded the horizons of her fathers principles and pursuits. To insure the work continues well into the 21st century, the Malabar 2000 Foundation plans for developing a center for study at Malabar Farm to further the work begun in Richland County by Louis Bromfield.
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