Phil Duffield Stong, an American author became popular with his 1932 novel State Fair. The state in the title refers to the ‘Iowa’. The success of the novel was propelled by the fact that a Hollywood production soon followed and was one of the nominations for Best Picture in the 1932/33 season of Academy Awards. More versions including a musical followed in the next decades. Stong wrote a sequel to this novel titled ‘Return in August’ in 1953.
