James Warner Bellah

James Warner Bellah
Born(1899-09-14)September 14, 1899
New York City, United States
DiedSeptember 22, 1976(1976-09-22) (aged 77)
Los Angeles, California, United States
OccupationAuthor
Screenwriter
LanguageEnglish
EducationColumbia University (BA)
Georgetown University (MA)
GenreWestern
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1928; div. 1932)​
Children
  • Ann Bellah Copeland
  • John Lasater Bellah
  • James Bellah
  • Stephen Bellah

James Warner Bellah (September 14, 1899 – September 22, 1976) was an American Western author from the 1930s to the 1950s. His pulp-fiction writings on cavalry and Indians were published in paperbacks or serialized in the Saturday Evening Post.

Bellah was the author of 19 novels, including The Valiant Virginian (the inspiration for the 1961 NBC television series The Americans), and Blood River. Some of his short stories were turned into films by John Ford, including Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and Rio Grande. With Willis Goldbeck he wrote the screenplays for Sergeant Rutledge (1960) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

Biography

Bellah earned his B.A. from Columbia University and M.A. in history from Georgetown University.[1][2]

In World War I, Bellah enlisted in the Canadian Army, and served as a pilot in the 117th Squadron of Great Britain's Royal Flying Corps. These experiences formed the basis of his 1928 novel Gods of Yesterday.

For several years after the war, he was a writer for advertising firms and instructor in English at Columbia.[3] In the 1930s he worked as a journalist for the New York Post.

During World War II, Bellah served in the United States Army, starting as a lieutenant in the 16th Infantry, was detailed to the General Staff Corps before Pearl Harbor, and was later assigned to Headquarters 1st Infantry Division, later with the 80th Infantry Division. Later he served on the staff of Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten in Southeast Asia. He was attached to General Wingate's Chindits in combat in Burma, and to General Stillwell and to Colonel Cochran's 1st Air Commando Group. He left the service with the rank of Colonel.

He was a member of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of California beginning in 1952.

His short story "Spanish Man's Grave" is considered by some to be one of the finest American Western stories ever written. His last script was A Thunder of Drums. Bellah's depiction of the Apache is protested by some and lauded as realistic by others.

In the early stages of his career, Elmore Leonard modelled his style closely after Bellah's writing.[4]

He died of a heart attack in Los Angeles during a visit to his friend James Francis, Cardinal McIntyre, Archbishop of Los Angeles. His manuscripts are stored at Columbia University and Boston University.[5][6]

Novels

  • These Frantic Years, New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1927
  • The Sons of Cain, New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1928
  • The Gods of Yesterday, New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1928
  • Dancing Lady, New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1932
  • White Piracy, New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1933
  • The Brass Gong Tree, New York: Appleton-Century Co., 1936
  • This is the Town, New York: Appleton-Century Co., 1937
  • 7 Must Die, New York: Appleton-Century Co., 1938
  • The Bones of Napoleon, New York: Appleton-Century Co., 1940
  • Ward Twenty: a Realistic Novel, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1946
  • Rear Guard, Popular Library (New York, NY), 1950 (First published as The White Invader, in The Saturday Evening Post; the basis of the 1954 film The Command).
  • The Apache, New York: Gold Medal Books, 1951 (First published as The Apache Curse in The Saturday Evening Post).
  • Divorce, New York: Popular Library Books, 1952 (A shorter version first published in April 1939 in Cosmopolitan as You Marry Once!)
  • Ordeal at Blood River, New York: Ballantine Books, 1959 (First published in The Saturday Evening Post).

Novelizations

  • Sergeant Rutledge, New York, Bantam Books, 1960, based on a screenplay by Bellah and Willis Goldbeck.
  • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, New York, Pocket Books, 1962 based on a screenplay by Bellah and Willis Goldbeck and the original story by Dorothy M. Johnson.
  • Thunder of Drums, New York, Bantam Books, 1961, based on a screenplay by Bellah.

Fort Starke, Civil War and Other Military Stories

Fort Starke Stories Collected in Reveille published by Fawcett Gold Medal in 1962 and Massacre published by Lion 1950:

  • Command, The Saturday Evening Post June 8, 1946 (Basis for A Thunder of Drums)
  • By the Beard of Saint Crispin, The Saturday Evening Post August 3, 1946
  • West of the Paradise, The Saturday Evening Post September 7, 1946
  • Massacre, The Saturday Evening Post February 22, 1947 (basis for Fort Apache)[7]
  • Spanish Man's Grave, The Saturday Evening Post May 3, 1947
  • The Devil at Crazy Man, The Saturday Evening Post June 21, 1947
  • Mission with No Record, The Saturday Evening Post September 27, 1947 (Basis for Rio Grande)
  • Lash of Fear, The Saturday Evening Post November 8, 1947
  • Big Hunt, The Saturday Evening Post December 6, 1947 (Basis for She Wore a Yellow Ribbon)
  • The Last Fight, The Saturday Evening Post October 16, 1948
  • Stage for Elkhorn, The Saturday Evening Post November 20, 1948

Collected only in Massacre:

  • War Party, The Saturday Evening Post June 19, 1948 (Basis for She Wore a Yellow Ribbon)

Flint Cohill also appears in Ordeal on Blood River, Bellah's final serial for The Saturday Evening Post published Oct 17, Oct 24, Oct 31, Nov 7, & November 14, 1959, and published in paperback by Ballantine in 1959.

Civil War Stories:

  • Tales of the Valorous Virginians—First Blood at Harper's Ferry, The Saturday Evening Post May 9, 1953
  • Tales of the Valorous Virginians: Stuart's Charge at Bull Run, The Saturday Evening Post May 16, 1953
  • Tales of the Valorous Virginians: Slaughter at Ball's Bluff, The Saturday Evening Post May 23, 1953
  • Tales of the Valorous Virginians: Jackson Got Licked at Kernstown, The Saturday Evening Post May 30, 1953
  • Tales of the Valorous Virginians— How Stonewall Came Back, The Saturday Evening Post June 6, 1953; Tales of the Valorous Virginians.
  • Tales of the Valorous Virginians: The Secret of the Seven Days, The Saturday Evening Post June 13, 1953

Collected in The Valiant Virginians published by Ballantine in 1953.

Other Military Stories collected in Fighting Man. USA

  • Spanish Man's Grave – The Saturday Evening Post, May 3, 1947
  • Day of Terror – The Saturday Evening Post, November 17, 1956
  • While the General Slept – The American Magazine Mar 1939
  • The Heart of Guinevere – The Saturday Evening Post, December 14, 1935
  • Fear – The Saturday Evening Post November 6, 1926—Bellah's debut in that publication.
  • Pirate of Nantucket – The Saturday Evening Post, June 27, 1942
  • Death of an Admiral – Cosmopolitan July 1961
  • Soldier's Boy – The Saturday Evening Post, November 23, 1957,

Collected in There Will Be War (Jerry Pournelle, ed.) published by Tor in 1986:

  • Spanish Man's Grave – The Saturday Evening Post, May 3, 1947,

This was the only non-science fiction story in this anthology about future war.

Screenplays

References

  1. ^ "James Warner Bellah, 77, Author Of Novels, Stories and Scenarios". The New York Times. September 24, 1976. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
  2. ^ Columbia College (Columbia University). Office of Alumni Affairs and Development; Columbia College (Columbia University) (1967–1969). Columbia College today. Columbia University Libraries. New York, N.Y. : Columbia College, Office of Alumni Affairs and Development.
  3. ^ Gelder, Robert van (July 7, 1940). "James Warner Bellah on Writing for Money; He Credits His Success as a Dealer in Light Fiction in Part to His Expensive Tastes". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
  4. ^ "My love affair with movies", The Guardian, republished in The Canberra Times, May 3, 1997, p. C4
  5. ^ "James Warner Bellah manuscripts, 1952–1953". columbia.edu. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
  6. ^ "Collection – Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center". archives.bu.edu. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
  7. ^ Holsinger, M. Paul (1999). War and American Popular Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 158. ISBN 9780313299087.

Further reading

  • Schoenberger, Nancy (2018). Wayne and Ford: The Films, the Friendship, and the Forging of an American Hero. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 70. ISBN 9780307744159. Bellah wrote the screenplays and novelizations for two of John Ford's films in the early 1960s. In particular Sergeant Rutledge (1960) is considered pioneering in its story of a black cavalry soldier. Nancy Schoenberger interviewed Bellah's son, James Bellah Jr., for her book. He said of his father that "His politics were just a little right of Attila. He was a fascist, a racist, and a world-class bigot."