Thorne Smith

Thorne Smith was born in 1893 in Annapolis, Maryland, and educated at Locust Dale Academy in Virginia and St Luke’s School in Wayne, Pennsylvania. His first job was in a New York advertising agency, which he left to join the navy in the First World War. During his service he rose to the rank of bosun’s mate and edited the service paper, Broadside, in which his humorous characters first appeared. After the war he had some difficulty in making his way before his series of farcical novels became established, when many films were based on them.

He lived in New Jersey with his wife and two daughters and spent much time in New York before going in 1933 to Hollywood, where he wrote dialogue for Metro Goldwyn-Mayer. He died in 1934.

(Text taken from the 1957 Penguin edition of The Night Life of the Gods. He was actually born 27 March 1892)


In 1921 Thorne Smith contributed a chapter on advertising to a book entitled "Civilization in the United States".

He also wrote a short story for Esquire Magazine in 1934 (Vol. I, No. 3) entitled "Yonder’s Henry" which was reprinted in a collection called "The Bedside Esquire".

Covers

More about Smith

Jim Choma

Chalmers / Rutgers (same information)

Original list by Staffar Moberg, additions by Teresa Knox and "brodys".


[Johan Blixt]
27 maj 2006 / Johan Blixt / johan@jblixt.se
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