Former writer-in-residence remembered with release of ‘The Revenant’

Frederick Manfred, a former USD writer-in-residence, wrote an earlier version of the story depicted in the new Leonardo DiCaprio movie “The Revenant” long before the film and the book it was based off of were made, but you won’t see his name in the credits.

Manfred’s novel, “Lord Grizzly,” was published in 1954 and is based on the life of Hugh Glass.

“When writing ‘Lord Grizzly,’ he did a lot of research,” Freya Manfred, Manfred’s daughter, said. “He read over 60 books relating to Hugh Glass to really understand what he went through. He also did personal research like tasting bugs and worms to see how that would feel. I remember he ate rattle snake to understand what that was like — not one he had killed himself, but still.”

She said he also tied something to his leg to make it immobile so he could crawl around the yard and get a feel for how dragging a broken leg would be.

Freya Manfred said the hardest part of his research was based off how Hugh Glass was able to forgive the two boys that left him for dead.

“Dad had to do some forgiving of his own, to learn how it would feel to forgive for something so large like that,” she said.

In addition to a dedication to writing through research, Manfred was also generous in giving writing tips to his students, former student and now USD professor Michelle Gannon said.

“He often talked about his writing process and I think it was beneficial to many of us who took his class,” Gannon said. “He was kind, he was funny, you couldn’t ignore him. He was such a great storyteller, because he had sort of a bigger than life personality.”

Gannon said Manfred, who was 6’7, “kind of towered over the class,” but his personality made him a very lighthearted person who was always ready to help students with their writing.

“He would come down to USD one day a week from his home in Minnesota. He drove this big Cadillac, a big car for a big man,” Nancy Zuercher, a former colleague of Manfred’s, said. “He was a very disciplined man. I recall he made a goal for himself to write at least four pages a day.”

Manfred was a writer in residence at USD from 1968 to 1983, commuting from his house in Luverne, MN. He died at the age of 82 in 1994.

“Lord Grizzly” is only one of Frederick Manfred’s books. Others include: “Conquering Horse” (1959), “King of Spades” (1965) and “No Fun on Sunday” (1990). He also wrote poetry and letters.

“My dad wrote with emotion by resolving inner conflict to portray it accurately,” Freya Manfred said. “He would ask himself what it would be like to be stranded on your own, and he answered it. He would ask himself what it was like to get your son taken from you and he answered it. He wanted to create a vivid psyche. It was part of the power of the novel.”