Joel Grover Sayre, Jr (December 13, 1900 – September 9, 1979) was an American novelist, war reporter, and screenwriter born in

Marion, Indiana Marion is a city in Grant County, Indiana, United States. The population was 29,948 as of the 2010 United States Census. The city is the county seat of Grant County. It is named for Francis Marion, a brigadier general from South Carolina in the ...

Early life and education

Sayre was the son of businessman Joel Grover Sayre and Nora Clemens Sayre, a photographer and interior decorator. He was raised at

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

, and educated at the

Columbus Academy Columbus Academy (CA) is a selective, independent college-University-preparatory school, preparatory school for students from pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade. The school is located on a large, secluded campus surrounded by wooded areas in Gahann ...

in Ohio, and a private school in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. A childhood friend was

James Thurber James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist and playwright. He was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in ''The New Yorker'' and collected in ...

, later a distinguished writer. Sayre failed to join the American army aged sixteen, but with a falsified birth certificate succeeded in joining the Canadian army, being subsequently sent to Siberia with its Expeditionary Force. On his return, he read literature at

Exeter College, Oxford Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth-oldest college of the un ...

, graduating BA in 1922, and briefly studied medicine at

Heidelberg University } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

in Germany.

Career

Sayre was the chief screenwriter for the 1939 film Gunga Din. His novels included ''Hizzoner the Mayor'' and ''Rackety Rax'', which the New York Times called "incredibly funny".

Personal life

In 1930, Sayre married Gertrude Lynahan, a reporter for The World. She later worked in journalism as a fashion editor. Their daughter was the film critic and essayist,

Nora Sayre Nora Clemens Sayre (September 20, 1932 – August 8, 2001) was an American film critic and essayist. She was a reviewer of films for ''The New York Times'' in the 1970s, and, from 1981, a writing teacher for many years at Columbia University ...

. He died on September 9, 1979, due to

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

References

External links

* American male screenwriters 1900 births 1979 deaths People from Southampton (town), New York Screenwriters from New York (state) 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters {{US-screen-writer-stub