Complex sentence: His last novel, "The Bad Seed", was published in 1954 and became a bestseller, but March died in that same year, before he could see the novel adapted first for the stage and then for the movies.
Split into simpler sentences: His last novel, "The Bad Seed", was published in 1954, the year March died. It became a bestseller, but he never saw his story adapted first for the stage and then for the movies.