Portrait of Vincent Sheean LCCN2004663561

James Vincent Sheean (December 5, 1899,

Pana, Illinois Pana is a small town in Christian County, Illinois, United States. A small portion is in Shelby County. The population was 5,199 at the 2020 census. History The area around Pana was first organized as Stone Coal Precinct in 1845. The county's ...

– March 16, 1975, Arolo, Frz. of

Leggiuno Leggiuno is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Varese, Lombardy, Italy. It is the birthplace of Gigi Riva, a footballer of Cagliari and Italy. The great Italian operatic tenor Giuseppe Borgatti died there in retirement in 1950. Main sight ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

) 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 A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...

Walter Wanger acquired the political memoir and made it the basis for his 1940 film production ''

Foreign Correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locat ...

'',

directed Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. 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 featur ...

. Sheean served as a

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

for the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...

'' during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...

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

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

'' (

1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidde ...

) directed by Alexander Hammid and Herbert Kline. He translated

Ève Curie Ève Denise Curie Labouisse (; December 6, 1904 – October 22, 2007) was a French and American writer, journalist and pianist. Ève Curie was the younger daughter of Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie. Her sister was Irène Joliot-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 and

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which wa ...

, ''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 Elizabeth Madox Roberts (October 30, 1881 – March 13, 1941) was a Kentucky novelist and poet, primarily known for her novels and stories set in central Kentucky's Washington County, including ''The Time of Man'' (1926), "My Heart and My Flesh," ...

and Janet Lewis while he was there. Vincent and

Diana Forbes-Robertson Sheean Diana Forbes-Robertson (14 December 1914 – 9 December 1987) was a British writer. The daughter of Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson and Gertrude Forbes-Robertson, Lady Forbes-Robertson, both actors, she was born in London and grew up in Kent. ...

were friends of Edna St. Vincent Millay 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 and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and territories of Canad ...

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, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), 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 ...

Notes

References

External links

*

* 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

Career

Books

Notes

References

Further reading

External links