Joel Grover Sayre, Jr (December 13, 1900 – September 9, 1979) was an American novelist, war reporter, and screenwriter born in

Marion, Indiana Marion is a city in and the county seat of Grant County, Indiana, United States, along the Mississinewa River. The population was 28,310 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is named for Francis Marion, a brigadier general from ...

Early life and education

Sayre was the son of businessman Joel Grover Sayre and Nora Clemens Sayre, a photographer and interior decorator. He was raised at

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

, and educated at the Columbus Academy in Ohio, and a private school in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

. A childhood friend was

James Thurber James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist, and playwright. He was best known for his gag cartoon, cartoons and short stories, published mainly in ''The New Yorker'' an ...

, later a distinguished writer. Sayre failed to join the American army aged sixteen, but with a falsified birth certificate succeeded in joining the Canadian army, being subsequently sent to Siberia with its Expeditionary Force. On his return, he read literature at

Exeter College, Oxford Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and the fourth-oldest college of the university. The college was founde ...

, graduating BA in 1922, and briefly studied medicine at

Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...

in Germany.

Career

Sayre was the chief screenwriter for the 1939 film Gunga Din. His novels included ''Hizzoner the Mayor'' and ''Rackety Rax'', which the New York Times called "incredibly funny".

Personal life

In 1930, Sayre married Gertrude Lynahan, a reporter for The World. She later worked in journalism as a fashion editor. Their daughter was the film critic and essayist,

Nora Sayre Nora Clemens Sayre (September 20, 1932 – August 8, 2001) was an American film critic and essayist. She was a reviewer of films for ''The New York Times'' in the 1970s, and, from 1981, a writing teacher for many years at Columbia Universit ...

. He died on September 9, 1979, due to

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...

References

External links

* American male screenwriters 1900 births 1979 deaths People from Southampton (town), New York Screenwriters from New York (state) 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters {{US-screen-writer-1900s-stub