Biography

Robert Arthur was born on November 10, 1909, at Fort Mills, Corregidor Island, the Philippines, where his father, Robert Arthur, Sr., then a lieutenant in the United States Army, was stationed. His mother was Sarah Fee Arthur, formerly of New Orleans. Arthur's childhood was spent moving, as his father was transferred from army base to army base. Arthur and his younger brother John Arthur, born in 1914, were educated in the public schools of Hull, Massachusetts, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Leavenworth, Kansas, and Hampton, VA. While his father was stationed at Fort Monroe in Hampton Roads, Virginia, Arthur attended Hampton High School, where he was elected President of the Senior Class.

Although he gained entrance to West Point, Arthur decided against following his father into the military, and instead enrolled at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia in the fall of 1926.

He then moved to New York City, where he lived in Greenwich Village in a walk-up apartment. During this time, he began writing stories for publication in pulp magazines.

In addition, during this time, Arthur worked as a writer and editor for pulp western, fact detective, and screen magazines for Dell Publishing, and was associate editor of Photo-Story, a picture magazine published by Fawcett Publications. In 1940 he met the woman who to become his second wife, Joan Vaczek, in a class on the short story he took from Whit Burnet at Columbia University.

In 1959, after his divorce from Joan Vaczek, Arthur moved to Hollywood where he worked in television. Simultaneously, Arthur was involved in editing a series of anthologies for younger readers. Arthur died in Philadelphia, PA, on May 2, 1969, at the age of fifty-nine.

Source: http://www.elizabetharthur.org/

Books by Robert Andrew Arthur