Tom Gill (writer)


Thomas Harvey Gill was a leader in American forestry, adventurer, writer of popular fiction and editor of an academic journal.

Forester

Gill served as a forester with the U.S. Forest Service from 1915 to 1925. From 1926 to 1960, he served as secretary and forester for the Charles Lathrop Pack Forestry Foundation. He played an important role in establishing the forestry division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and founded the International Society of Tropical Foresters.

Scholar

In 1938, along with Harry Stack Sullivan and Ernest E. Hadley he founded the interdisciplinary journal Psychiatry: Journal of the Biology and Pathology of Interpersonal Relations.

Novelist

Tom Gill authored many popular and academic works. His fiction centered on stories of adventure involving cowboys, forest rangers, and frontier characters. His 12 books of fiction included Guardians of the Desert, Death Rides the Mesa, North to Danger, Firebrand, and No Place for Women.
Fox Movietone adapted Gill's story The Gay Bandit of the Border, releasing the film as The Gay Caballero in 1932. His 1939 novel Gentlemen of the Jungle was adapted into the film Tropic Zone .

End of life

Tom Gill died at the age of 81.