John Guy Gilpatric (January 21, 1896 – July 7, 1950) was an American pilot, flight instructor,

journalist 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 journalis ...

short-story writer A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

, best known for his Mr. Glencannon stories.

Biography

John Guy Gilpatric was born on January 21, 1896, in New York. He was the son of a Scottish immigrant. In his autobiographical book ''Flying Stories'', he writes that he was seven years old when he saw photographs of the Wright brothers’ first flights, and decided he wanted to become a pilot. He got his pilot's license at 16, in 1912. On November 28 of that same year, at Dominguez Field in what is now Carson, California, he set a new United States altitude record. Flying a Deperdussin airplane, with a passenger aboard, he achieved an altitude of 4,665 feet. While still a teenager, he began working as a stunt pilot and as a flight instructor. He taught at both the Moisant Flying School and the Sloane Aviation School. He was a test pilot and instructor at the Garden City Aerodrome in New York, where in 1915 he joined the Heinrich Aeroplane Company, quickly becoming chief pilot. In June of the same year, he moved to Toronto to instruct at the Curtiss Flying Boat School and was involved in training Canadian military pilots. In a 1931 letter to ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine, he wrote, "Early in the spring of 1914, I landed a Sloane-Deperdussin monoplane, 50 h.p. Gnome motor (some power fer them days, by gravy!) in the sheep meadow at 66th Street ew York City Was arrested for something—possibly, publicity for the cop who arrested me— and discharged by Magistrate MacQuade next morning. The

Aero Club of America The Aero Club of America was a social club formed in 1905 by Charles Jasper Glidden and Augustus Post, among others, to promote aviation in America. It was the parent organization of numerous state chapters, the first being the Aero Club of New ...

suspended my license for six months." He was a demonstration, stunt and test pilot and performed in various movies. For one film, the script called for him to crash an airplane. Gilpatric did so and survived the crash. However, the footage did not come out well, so he had to repeat the stunt. When the United States entered

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1917, Gilpatric enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Service as a first lieutenant. He was stationed overseas as an engineering officer in the First Aero Squadron,

American Expeditionary Forces The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought along ...

(AEF). He then became a journalist in France for some time before moving to Antibes, where he worked as a publicity agent. It was there that he got the inspiration for his Mr. Glencannon stories, which were published in the '' Saturday Evening Post''. In 1940, he and his wife Louise returned to the US. In 1943, his book ''Action in the North Atlantic'' was made into a film.

Works

Gilpatric is best known for his short stories about Scottish ship engineer Colin Glencannon, published in the '' Saturday Evening Post'' and bundled in numerous books. A 39-episode TV series starring Thomas Mitchell as Colin Glencannon was produced in 1959. Other works include ''

Action in the North Atlantic ''Action in the North Atlantic'', also known as ''Heroes Without Uniforms'', is a 1943 American black-and-white war film from Warner Bros. Pictures, produced by Jerry Wald, directed by Lloyd Bacon, that stars Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey as ...

'', which was made into a movie starring Humphrey Bogart, and which was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for best story in 1943. In ''Flying Stories'' Gilpatric describes the adventures of his early years as a pilot. His collection of short stories entitled ''Brownstone Front'' takes place in New York City during the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th. His novel ''French Summer'' is a humorous romance which revolves around vacationers at the French Riviera in the late 1920s. His character Francis X. Olvaney, illustrated as a crooked

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

politician responsible for dangerous slum areas, appears in stories contained in both ''Brownstone Front'' and ''Flying Stories'', lending credence to the opinion that many of Gilpatric's short stories are autobiographical in nature. In 1938, Gilpatric published ''The Compleat Goggler'' (the archaic title a jocose reference to Izaak Walton's ''

The Compleat Angler ''The Compleat Angler'' (the spelling is sometimes modernised to ''The Complete Angler'', though this spelling also occurs in first editions) is a book by Izaak Walton. It was first published in 1653 by Richard Marriot in London. Walton continu ...

''), considered the first comprehensive guide to

spearfishing Spearfishing is a method of fishing that involves impaling the fish with a straight pointed object such as a spear, gig or harpoon. It has been deployed in artisanal fishing throughout the world for millennia. Early civilisations were familia ...

. It outlines methods of constructing equipment, and techniques for spearing and cooking the fish. It was republished in 1957 as a free giveaway with an annual subscription to ''Skin Diver Magazine''. It is now out of print, and copies sell for up to $1000. In the late 1930s Gilpatric was living and

in the French Riviera where he influenced diving pioneers like

Jacques-Yves Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful Aqua-Lung, open-circuit SCUBA ( self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). T ...

and

Hans Hass Hans Hass (23 January 1919 – 16 June 2013) was an Austrian biologist and underwater diving pioneer. He was known mainly for being among the first scientists to popularise coral reefs, stingrays, octopuses and sharks. He pioneered the making o ...

to begin spearfishing.

Murder-suicide pact

When his wife, Maude Louise Gilpatric, learned that she had breast cancer in July 1950, they decided to commit suicide together. While waiting for the diagnosis to be confirmed, they explored the confusing array of treatment options with multiple experts. He shot her in the back of the head, then shot himself. They left notes for friends and family, saying they chose " mercy bullets" over "

magic bullets Magic Bullets was an American indie pop band from San Francisco, California. History Magic Bullets formed in San Francisco, California in 2004 with musicians primarily hailing from the Bay area who had spent most of their musically formative yea ...

". Their bodies were found in their Santa Barbara home by a house guest. Although it was never proven, it is widely believed that the doctor had read the wrong medical chart and that Maude did not have cancer.Kulczyk, David. (2009). ''Death In California: The Bizarre, Freakish, and Just Curious Ways People Die in the Golden State''. Craven Street Books. P90

Sources

* ''Glencannon lapt de oorlog aan zijn laars'' (Dutch translation of ''Mr. Glencannon Ignores the War'' - ; Smit & Wytzes 1992) * Internet Movie Database *Kulczyk, David. (2009). ''Death In California: The Bizarre, Freakish, and Just Curious Ways People Die in the Golden State''. Craven Street Books. P90

References

External links

Three Mr. Glencannon stories
at Gaslight etexts. *
Glencannon TV series at IMDb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilpatric, Guy 1896 births 1950 suicides 20th-century American novelists American male journalists 20th-century American journalists American male novelists Suicides by firearm in California Novelists from New York (state) American underwater divers American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers United States Army Air Service pilots of World War I Joint suicides