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| Nicholas Evans | |
Nicholas Evans, the British journalist, filmmaker and author "whose novel-turned-film, The Horse Whisperer, broke publishing and movie records, along with the hearts of readers who made the book a bestseller in 20 countries," died August 9, the New York Times reported. He was 72.
In 1993, Evans had been working as a journalist and documentary filmmaker when he began thinking about an idea for a novel. He "had found an intriguing subject: the mystical, manly art of horse whispering. His source was a farrier, and Mr. Evans soon learned that the vocation of calming horses had a long history stretching back centuries," the Times wrote. To escape the class implications of the English horse world, Evans "looked to the American West for his story. He came up trumps when he met Tom Dorrance, a terse cowboy then in his 80s, and watched him soothe a frenzied mare in California. He then found two other cowboys who practiced the same compelling magic, and began to craft a character inspired by these three men."
Evans wrote about 150 pages of what would become The Horse Whisperer, then showed the draft to agent Caradoc King, who sent the partial manuscript to a number of publishers on their way to the Frankfurt book fair that year. Suddenly, Evans was in the middle of a bidding war, juggling offers from Hollywood as well as from book publishers. Hollywood Pictures and Robert Redford’s film studio, Wildwood Pictures, "won the bid, at the time the largest amount ever paid for the rights to a first novel (almost $6 million in today’s money). Mr. Evans’s North American book advance, of $3.15 million from Dell Publishing, set another record," the Times noted.
Published in 1995, The Horse Whisperer was a global bestseller, translated into 40 languages, though not a critical success. The movie, which came out in 1998, was more favorably reviewed and a modest box office success. Coincidentally, Evans also unknowingly introduced the word "whisperer" into the popular lexicon to denote experts who can tame complicated creatures.
“It was an extraordinary event,” said King of the frenzy surrounding The Horse Whisperer. "It was just the magic of the story. That was the thing.”
Charlie King, managing director of Little, Brown Book Group, told the Bookseller that Evans "was a masterful storyteller and one of the most successful, best-loved novelists of his generation. His era-defining bestseller The Horse Whisperer and his four subsequent novels, The Loop, The Smoke Jumper, The Divide and The Brave, have been enjoyed by millions of readers around the world. Little, Brown is extremely proud to be Nick’s publisher--he will be greatly missed, but his words will live on for years to come."