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Louis Bromfield (December 27, 1896 - March 18, 1956) was an American author and conservationist who gained international recognition winning the Pulitzer Prize and pioneering innovative scientific farming concepts. One of Mansfield, Ohio's most famous natives, his home was Malabar Farm near Lucas, Ohio, from 1939 until his death in 1956. Bromfield was also friends with some of the most celebrated personalities of his era and provided the location for Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall's wedding. Bromfield studied agriculture at Cornell before transferring to Columbia University to pursue a career in writing. After serving with the American Field Service 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 spending 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." Bromfield's writings turned from fiction to non-fiction and his reputation and influence as a conservationist and farmer continued to expand. Today, thousand of visitors annually visit Malabar Farm State Park which operates under Bromfield's management philosophy. One of the park's notable features is the Doris Duke Woods, named after Bromfield's famous friend and philanthropist, Doris Duke, whose donation helped purchase the property after Bromfield's death. In the 1980s, Louis Bromfield was posthumously elected to the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame and in December 1996, the centennial of his birth, the Ohio Department of Agriculture placed a bust of Louis Bromfield in the lobby named for him at the department's 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 father's 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 (Mansfield, Ohio) by Louis Bromfield.
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