Harry Brown (writer)
Harry Peter McNab Brown Jr. (April 30, 1917 – November 2, 1986)[1] was an American poet, novelist and screenwriter.
Life
Born in
Charles Scribner's Sons of New York published, in 1941, Brown's sustained unified poem The Poem of Bunker Hill. The 158-page poetic epic won praise for its author's literary gifts as a poet and for the timely presentation of a vital topic – young men and war. Louise Bogan from The New Yorker stated: "Brown...possesses one of the most unmistakable poetic gifts which have recently appeared. Such a talent is not only basically good from the beginning but exhibits, also from the first, all the signs of virtuosity." Also published, early in that year, was Brown's first full-length book, The End of a Decade.
From the American Revolutionary warfare of The Poem of Bunker Hill, Harry Brown went directly to modern military operations. Brown enlisted in July 1941 in the
Brown wrote a column for the magazine under the pen name of "PFC Artie Greengroin" with a book published in 1945 of the columns under that title.[1] Brown also wrote a play, A Sound of Hunting, that was produced on Broadway in 1946 starring Burt Lancaster and Frank Lovejoy. It was later filmed by Stanley Kramer under the title Eight Iron Men with a different cast of Bonar Colleano, Lee Marvin, and Arthur Franz in 1952, then was a 1961 television production with Peter Falk, Robert Lansing, and Sal Mineo directed by Seymour Robbie.
Brown wrote the novel
In the early 1960s Brown and his wife moved to Mexico, where they lived for 15 years.[1]
Brown died from emphysema in Los Angeles in 1986.[2][1]
Awards
- 1938/1939 Shelley Memorial Award
- 1936 The Young Poets Prize , awarded by Poetry magazine
- 1937 Lloyd McKim Garrison Award
- 1952 Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay for A Place in the Sun, (co-written with Michael Wilson)[1]
Works
Poetry
- The Poem of Bunker Hill. C. Scribner's sons. 1941.
- The beast in his hunger: poems. A.A. Knopf. 1949.
- The Violent: New Poems. New Directions. 1943.
- The end of a decade. New Directions. 1940.
Novels
- A Walk In The Sun. University of Nebraska Press. 1998. ISBN 978-0-8032-6148-8.
- The Wild Hunt. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1973. ISBN 978-0-15-196720-9.
- A Quiet Place To Work. Knopf. 1968.
- The Stars in Their Courses: A Novel. Knopf. 1960.
(The basis for the John Wayne film El Dorado.[1] Brown insisted that his credit be removed, as he felt the film had so little in common with the novel.) - Artie Greengroin, Pfc. Knopf. 1945.
- Ralph Stein; Harry Brown (1943). It's A Cinch, Private Finch!. Whittlesey house, McGraw-Hill book company, inc.
The screen credits in El Dorado list Harry Brown as the author of The Stars in Their Courses.
Plays
- A Sound Of Hunting: A Play In Three Acts. A.A. Knopf. 1946.
Screenplays (partial list)
- Arch of Triumph (1948), co-written with Lewis Milestone
- Wake of the Red Witch (1948) co-written with Kenneth Gamet
- Sands of Iwo Jima (1950) co-written with James Edward Grant; original story by Brown
- Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950)
- The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1950)
- A Place in the Sun (1951) co-written with Michael Wilson (writer)
- Only the Valiant (1951) co-written with Edmund H. North
- Eight Iron Men (1952), based on his play A Sound of Hunting
- Many Rivers to Cross (1955) co-written with Guy Trosper
- The Virgin Queen (1955) co-written with Mindret Lord
- D-Day the Sixth of June (1956) co-written with Ivan Moffat
- Ocean's 11 (1960) co-written with Charles Lederer