Bitter trumpet

Grove had attempted to write Westerns after Word War II, and interviewed many Oklahoma pioneers while working as a reporter for the Shawnee Morning News. He sold his first short story, "The Hangrope Ghost," to .44 Western magazine in 1951. He taught beginning reporting and worked in public relations at the University of Oklahoma, where he had taken creative writing courses from Foster Harris and Walter Campbell. Grove later served as Public Information Director of the Oklahoma Education Television Authority.

Flame of the Osage was his first book, published when he was forty-five. He had previously sold Western short stories to pulp magazines and Boy's Life during the 1950s. In addition to his five Spur awards from Western Writers of America, Fred Grove has received the Saddleman, the first Oklahoma Writing Award, and two Western Heritage awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Grove died on September 11, 2008, after a long battle with cancer. He was 95. (Bowker Author Biography)