Humphrey Cobb (September 5, 1899 – April 25, 1944) was an Italian-born, Canadian-American

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

. He is known for writing the novel ''

Paths of Glory ''Paths of Glory'' is a 1957 American anti-war film directed by Stanley Kubrick, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson. It is adapted from the 1935 novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb, which in turn was ...

'' (1935), which was made into an acclaimed 1957 anti-war film ''

'' by

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

. Cobb was also the lead screenwriter on the 1937 film ''

San Quentin San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQ), formerly known as San Quentin State Prison, is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in ...

'', starring

Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart ( ; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American actor. His performances in classic Hollywood cinema made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart ...

Early life and military service

Humphrey Cobb was born in

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

, Italy. He was the son of American parents, Arthur Cobb, an artist, and his wife Alice Littell Cobb, a physician. Cobb's parents sent him to school in England for his primary education and at age 13 he returned to the United States to continue his schooling. In 1916, after being expelled from high school at age 17, Cobb relocated to

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada to enlist in the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army () is the command (military formation), command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also re ...

a year before the United States entered World War I. He served for three years during the conflict, including duty on the front lines at the Battle of Amiens in France in 1918.

Writer

Following the war, Cobb worked a variety of jobs. He worked in the stock trade, merchant marine, publishing, advertising, and the US

Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...

writing overseas propaganda. He wrote ''

'' while working at the

Young & Rubicam VMLY&R was an American marketing and Marketing communications, communications company specializing in advertising, Digital media, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting, formed from the 2020 mer ...

advertising agency in New York. The story is about three French soldiers who are

court martial A court-martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the mili ...

ed and executed to save senior commanders from shame. The book was based on the

Souain corporals affair The Souain corporals affair (; ) was an incident where four corporals in the French Army were Execution by firing squad, shot by firing squad as an example to the rest of their companies during the First World War. The executions, which occurred i ...

, an actual event in WWI when the French Army shot four men for cowardice as an example to others. Cobb wrote a second less well received novel, ''None But the Brave'', which was serialized in ''

Collier's Weekly } ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter F. Collier, Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened i ...

'' in 1938. From 1935 to 1940 he was employed as a screenwriter where he was credited as a co-writer of ''

'' (1937).

Personal life

Cobb married Annie Louise Hubbard. They had two children, William and Alice. His sister was Dr. Virginia Cobb.

Death

Cobb died of

coronary thrombosis Coronary thrombosis is defined as the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel of the heart. This blood clot may then restrict blood flow within the heart, leading to heart tissue damage, or a myocardial infarction, also known as a heart ...

at his home in

Port Washington, New York Port Washington is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) on the Cow Neck Peninsula in the North Hempstead, New York, Town of North Hempstead, in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on the North Shore (Long Island), No ...

on April 25, 1944. At the time of his death, he was an advertising copywriter for the New York firm of

Kenyon & Eckhardt Kenyon & Eckhardt was an independent advertising agency that was acquired by Lorimar in 1983, which then acquired Bozell Jacobs in 1985 and merged them. ''Lorimars merged ad agency property was initially named ''Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eck ...

Notes

External links

Cobb's enlistment forms
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cobb, Humphrey 1899 births 1944 deaths 20th-century American novelists American male screenwriters American expatriates in Italy Canadian Army personnel American male novelists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters American expatriates in the United Kingdom American expatriate writers in Canada