Portrait of Vincent Sheean LCCN2004663561

James Vincent Sheean (December 5, 1899, Pana, Illinois – March 16, 1975, Arolo, Frz. of Leggiuno,

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

) was an American journalist and novelist.

Career

Sheean's most famous work was ''Personal History'' (New York: Doubleday, 1935). It won one of the inaugural National Book Awards: the Most Distinguished Biography of 1935."Books and Authors", ''The New York Times'', 1936-04-12, page BR12. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2007). "Lewis is Scornful of Radio Culture: ...", ''The New York Times'', 1936-05-12, page 25. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2007). Biography was separately recognized in 1935 and 1936, then subsumed in general Nonfiction. Film producer Walter Wanger acquired the political memoir and made it the basis for his 1940 film production '' Foreign Correspondent'',

directed Direct may refer to: Mathematics * Directed set, in order theory * Direct limit of (pre), sheaves * Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces Computing * Direct access (disambiguation), a ...

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...

. Sheean served as a

reporter 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 ...

for the '' New York Herald Tribune'' during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. Sheean wrote the narration for the feature-length documentary ''

Crisis A crisis (: crises; : critical) is any event or period that will lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affairs, especially when ...

'' (

1939 This year also marks the start of the World War II, Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Events related to World War II have a "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Coming into effect in Nazi Ger ...

) directed by Alexander Hammid and Herbert Kline. He translated Ève Curie's biography of her mother, ''Madame Curie'' (1939), into English. Sheean wrote ''Oscar Hammerstein I: Life and Exploits of an Impresario'' (1955) as well as a controversial biography of

Dorothy Thompson Dorothy Celene Thompson (July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster. She was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany, in 1934, and was one of the few women news commentators broadc ...

and

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1930, he became the first author from the United States (and the first from the America ...

, ''Dorothy and Red'' (1963). He studied at the University of Chicago, becoming part of a literary circle which included Glenway Wescott, Yvor Winters, Elizabeth Madox Roberts and Janet Lewis while he was there. Vincent and Diana Forbes-Robertson Sheean were friends of

Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyric poetry, lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted Feminism, feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. ...

and her husband, Eugen; they spent time together on Ragged Island off the coast of

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

during the summer of 1945.

Books

Partial list, including both fiction and otherwise: * ''New Persia'' (1927) - Iran * ''Anatomy of Virtue'' - (1927) - Psychological romance novel of an American girl who marries an English nobleman. * ''American Among the Riffi'' (1926) * ''Gog and Magog'' * ''The Tide'' (1933) - "If a Messiah Came to Your Town Today, What Would You Think? What Would You Do?". * ''Personal History: Youth and Revolution: the Story of One Person's Relationship to Living History'' (1935) * ''Sanfelice'' (1936) - Historical novel set in Naples * ''The Pieces of a Fan'' (1937) * ''A Day of Battle'' (1938) - Historical novel based on the French victory at Fontenoy in Flanders on May 11, 1745 * ''Not Peace but a Sword'' (1939) - Europe. Personal account of events in Prague, Madrid, London, Paris and Berlin during the 12 fateful months between March 1938 and March 1939.Book list from first edition of "Not Peace but a Sword" * ''Lead, Kindly Light: Gandhi & the Way to Peace'', Random House (1949). Can Gandhi's non-violent approach lead the world away from violence as the way to settle disputes? *''Between the Thunder and the Sun'' (1943) Account of being in England during the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...

Notes

References

External links

Biography of Vincent Sheean
*

* ttp://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/s/sheean_v.htm Vincent Sheean papers at Syracuse Universitybr>Guide to the Vincent Sheean and Ruth Falkenau Correspondence 1919-1986
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheean, Vincent 1899 births 1975 deaths People from Pana, Illinois American male screenwriters National Book Award winners Screenwriters from Illinois 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters American war correspondents American people of the Spanish Civil War New York Herald Tribune people War correspondents of the Spanish Civil War

Career

Books

Notes

References

Further reading

External links