Robert Quillen
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Verni Robert Quillen (March 25, 1887 – December 9, 1948) was an American
journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
and
humorist A humorist is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking. A raconteur is one who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way. Henri Bergson writes that a humorist's work grows from viewing the morals of society ...
who for more than a quarter century was "one of the leading purveyors of village nostalgia" from his home in
Fountain Inn, South Carolina Fountain Inn is a city in Greenville and Laurens counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 10,416 at the 2020 census, up from 7,799 in 2010. It is part of the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area. ...
. In 2012, his office and library was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
.


Youth and early career

Quillen was born in
Syracuse, Kansas Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,826. It is located along Highway 50. History Syracuse began its existence as a stop on the Atchiso ...
, near the Colorado border, and was reared in
Overbrook, Kansas Overbrook is a city in Osage County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,005. History The Santa Fe Trail passed through the Overbrook area, and ruts can still be seen at certain locations in and a ...
, a hamlet south of
Topeka Topeka ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County, Kansas, Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeaste ...
, where his father, J. D. Quillen, published the local newspaper. Robert early learned to set type and as a teenager sold pen-and-ink drawings and published a monthly magazine. In 1904, shortly before his seventeenth birthday, Quillen joined the
U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...
under an assumed name (swearing he was 21), but by mid-1905, he had been released from military service. He then spent a few months working for newspapers in the northeastern United States where he had been discharged. In 1906, he answered an ad seeking an editor for a weekly that a publisher hoped to establish in
Fountain Inn, South Carolina Fountain Inn is a city in Greenville and Laurens counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 10,416 at the 2020 census, up from 7,799 in 2010. It is part of the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area. ...
. Although after his first encounter he remained in Fountain Inn only three months, Quillen there met and married Donnie Cox, a milliner, five years his senior. He moved on to
Americus, Georgia Americus is the county seat of Sumter County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 16,230. It is the principal city of the Americus Micropolitan Statistical Area, a micropolitan area that covers Schley ...
, and then took his new bride to
Washington state Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...
, where Quillen joined forces with his father and worked at publishing newspapers and magazines in Winlock,
Anacortes Anacortes ( ) is a city in Skagit County, Washington, United States. The name "Anacortes" is an adaptation of the name of Anne Curtis Bowman, who was the wife of early Fidalgo Island settler Amos Bowman.Port Orchard Port Orchard, part of Washington state's Puget Sound, is the strait that separates Bainbridge Island on the east from the Kitsap Peninsula on the west. It extends from Liberty Bay and Agate Pass in the north to Sinclair Inlet and Rich Passag ...
. Quillen later wrote that he had gone "busted" in the West.Moore, xiii.


''Fountain Inn Tribune''

In 1910, when his brother-in-law in Fountain Inn offered to sell him a weekly advertising sheet called ''News and Notions'', Quillen bought it and borrowed money to purchase his own press and type. In the following year Quillen began editing and publishing the newly christened ''Fountain Inn Tribune'', "a well-organized publication overflowing with news of Fountain Inn and outlying communities." At first, as Quillen confessed two decades later, "the natives were a little hot under the collar" at what he called his "hypothetical cases"—thinly veiled descriptions of the locals—but most soon warmed to him like an eccentric aunt. One Fountain Inn man warned a new preacher, "Don't get mad at anything Mr. Quillen says. We're used to him and just overlook his queerness." Among other oddities, Quillen regularly wore a "cowboy-type
Stetson Stetson is an American brand of hat manufactured by the John B. Stetson Company. "Stetson" is also used as a generic trademark to refer to any campaign hat, particularly in Scouting. John B. Stetson gained inspiration for his most famous ...
," raised a memorial to "
Eve Eve is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop through oral traditions and there ...
, the First Woman," published his father's obituary before he died, used a column to advertise his interest in adopting a baby boy ("must be between three and twelve months of age"), and built himself a faux Greek temple as a work space—which he never used. Facile with words, Quillen took inconsistent political, economic, and racial positions; but he was "not afraid to bare his soul, express personal views, and even vent scorn and anger." For instance, he hated patent medicine, people who put on airs, late night noises (both human and natural), and the cats and jays that killed his beloved song birds. Although a shy man who refused to speak in public, he became something of a "one-man welfare and relief agency for the poor and needy of Fountain Inn." Meanwhile, Quillen engaged in a "never ending struggle" to make the ''Fountain Inn Tribune'' pay its own way. With fewer than a thousand subscribers, the newspaper itself was probably never profitable, but Quillen used the ideas generated in Fountain Inn as the basis for pieces that appeared in scores of leading national magazines and newspapers. Twice, frustrated with the time it took to run the weekly, he sold the paper (notoriously in 1926 for one dollar) and twice bought it back. In 1929, Quillen called the ''Tribune'' "my hobby—my substitute for golf."


Syndicated journalist

By 1932 his work, which included editorials, paragraphs,
cartoons A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...
, and one-liners, was regularly appearing in four hundred newspapers in the United States, Canada, England, and the Far East. Quillen wrote for such major periodicals such as the ''
Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publish ...
'', the ''
Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...
'', and ''
The American Magazine ''The American Magazine'' was a periodical publication founded in June 1906, a continuation of failed publications purchased a few years earlier from publishing mogul Miriam Leslie. It succeeded '' Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly'' (1876–1904) ...
'', and he "took the greatest pride" in one-liners picked up by ''
Literary Digest ''The Literary Digest'' was an American general interest weekly magazine published by Funk & Wagnalls. Founded by Isaac Kaufmann Funk in 1890, it eventually merged with two similar weekly magazines, ''Public Opinion'' and '' Current Opinion''. ...
''. According to a biographer, he was known as the best "paragrapher" of his day. With the assistance of Chicago newspaper executive Eugene P. Conley (co-founder of the
Publishers Syndicate Publishers Newspaper Syndicate (later Publishers Syndicate) was a syndication service based in Chicago that operated from 1925 to 1967, when it merged with the Hall Syndicate. Publishers syndicated such long-lived comic strips as '' Big Chief Wa ...
),Watson, Elmo Scott
"The Era of Consolidation, 1890-1920" (Chapter VII)
in ''A History Of Newspaper Syndicates In The United States, 1865-1935'' (Western Newspaper Union, 1936)

/ref> Quillen also syndicated two single-panel cartoons (drawn by John H. Striebel), ''Aunt Het'' and ''Willie Willis'' — the latter of which was translated into
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
as ''Pimmie Pimmel''. As early as 1924, Quillen's income from syndicated material alone was probably more than $25,000 — easily ten times that amount in early 21st-century dollars. Well into his forties, Quillen hoped to become a great novelist. Macmillan published his two novels, ''One Man's Religion'' (1923) and ''The Path Wharton Found'' (1924). The first was "little more than a loose collection of pieces first published in the ''Saturday Evening Post''," the second, a book which one reviewer called a "good enough conventional story, hampered by neither originality nor brilliancy." A decade later Quillen referred to these books as "fortunately out of print."Moore, xix. In 1934 Hollywood screen writer
Lamar Trotti Lamar Jefferson Trotti (October 18, 1900 – August 28, 1952) was an American screenwriter, producer, and motion picture executive. Early life and education Trotti was born in Atlanta, US. He became the first graduate of the Henry W. Grady Co ...
and producer George Marshall visited Quillen to use him as a prototype for a
Will Rogers William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma ...
film, '' Life Begins at 40'', in which Rogers played a small-town newspaper editor. The film credits mentioned Quillen for "contributing dialogue."


Personal life

Unable to find the adoptive son for whom he had advertised, Quillen and his wife adopted a baby girl, Louise, to whom Quillen later wrote a noted series of public epistles, "Letters from a Bald-Headed Dad to His Red-Headed Daughter." Shortly after the adoption, his wife died following routine surgery. In 1922, Quillen married another woman from Fountain Inn, Marcelle Babb. Despite years of ill health, Quillen continued to smoke and avoid doctors. He died at a nursing home in
Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad River, French Broad and Swannanoa River, Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populou ...
in 1948 and was buried in Fountain Inn. Not surprisingly, he had written and published his own obituary sixteen years earlier, which read in part, "He was a writer of paragraphs and short editorials. He always hoped to write something of permanent value, but the business of making a living took most of his time and he never got around to it. In his youth he felt an urge to reform the world, but during the latter years of his life he decided that he would be doing rather well if he kept himself out of jail.""Obituary," March 24, 1932, in Moore, 181-82. The obituary continued, "When the last clod had fallen, workmen covered the grave with a granite slab bearing the inscription: 'Submitted to the Publisher by Robert Quillen.'"


Notes


External links


Historical Marker Database
"Monument to Eve." {{DEFAULTSORT:Quillen, Robert 1887 births 1948 deaths Writers from Greenville, South Carolina People from Osage County, Kansas Writers from Kansas American male journalists American humorists United States Army soldiers People from Hamilton County, Kansas People from Fountain Inn, South Carolina