Clements Ripley was an American fiction writer and screenwriter.

Ripley was born, August 26, 1892, in Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...

. After graduating from Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, he joined the Army during World War I as a second lieutenant in the 14th Field Artillery Regiment; he served until 1920, rising to the rank of captain. While stationed in South Carolina, he met and married Katherine Ball in 1919, the daughter of famed journalist W. W. Ball. The couple lived in North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

, where they grew peaches until 1927, when they moved to Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

, to become writers. He wrote seven novels, three of which were made into motion pictures. He also wrote numerous short stories and serials, some of which were published in popular magazines, including Cosmopolitan

Cosmopolitan (magazine)

Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...

and the Saturday Evening Post.

He died July 22, 1954 at age 61 in Charleston. He was memorialized in his family's plot at Evergreen Cemetery in Rutland, Vermont

Rutland, Vermont

Rutland, Vermont may refer to:*Rutland , Vermont*Rutland , Vermont*Rutland County, Vermont*West Rutland, Vermont...

, and was buried at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston.

Novels

• Dust and Sun (1929), which was made into the 1930 film A Devil with Women with Humphrey Bogart
  Humphrey Bogart
  Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
  
  
• Devil Drums (1930)
• Black Moon (1933), which was made into a motion picture of the same name in 1934 with Fay Wray
  Fay Wray
  Fay Wray was a Canadian-American actress most noted for playing the female lead in King Kong...
  
  
• Murder Walks Alone (1935)
• Gold Is Where You Find It (1936), which was made into a motion picture of the same name in 1938, starring Olivia de Havilland
  Olivia de Havilland
  Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...
  
   and Claude Rains
  Claude Rains
  Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...
  
  
• Clear for Action (1940)
• Mississippi Belle (1942)

Screenplays

• Love, Honor and Behave (1938), co-writer
• Jezebel (1938), co-writer, for which Bette Davis
  Bette Davis
  Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
  
   received the Academy Award for Best Actress and Fay Bainter
  Fay Bainter
  Fay Okell Bainter was an American film and stage actress.-Early life:She was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Charles F. Bainter and Mary Okell. In 1910, she was a traveling stage actress...
  
   for Best Supporting Actress. It was also made into an episode of the same name of the TV series Lux Video Theatre in 1956, for which he wrote the screenplay.
• Pioneer Woman (1940)
• Buffalo Bill (1944) with Joel McCrea
  Joel McCrea
  Joel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
  
   and Maureen O'Hara
  Maureen O'Hara
  Maureen O'Hara is an Irish film actress and singer. The famously red-headed O'Hara has been noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude. She often worked with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne...
  
  
• Old Los Angeles (1948) (screenplay and story)

Short stories

• "For Ways That Are Dark", Argosy All-Story Weekly, Apr 2 1921
• "Mr. Hartman Finesses a Queen", Breezy Stories, Jan 1923
• "Ain't That Our Luck", Adventure, Dec 20 1923
• "The Unkeyed Letter", Top-Notch, Jul 1 1925
• "Gun Cargo", The Frontier, Sep 1926
• "Bucko", Frontier Stories, Nov 1927
• "Cities of Fear", Everybody's Magazine, Jan 1928
• "The Man for the Job", Everybody’s Magazine, Dec 1928
• "Hard Old Man", The American Magazine, Jun 1931
• "Good-Will Tour", Cosmopolitan, Oct 1932
• "The Socking of Cicero", Cosmopolitan, Oct 1933
• "Bank Holdup", Cosmopolitan, Jan 1934
• "A Lady Comes to Town", Cosmopolitan, Jun 1934
• "Patriot", Cosmopolitan, Jul 1935
• "Tenth Commandment", Cosmopolitan, Nov 1935
• "The Cute Little Trick", Redbook, Dec 1937
• "The Knife Look", Cosmopolitan, May 1939
• "Once an Artilleryman—", The Saturday Evening Post, Aug 24 1940
• "Each in His Turn", The Saturday Evening Post, Jun 7 1941
• "Roaring Guns", which was made into the 1944 short film of the same name
• "Soldier's Honor", The Saturday Evening Post, Nov 22 1947
• "Hidden Valley", The American Magazine, Feb 1950
• "The Day the Circus Came", The Saturday Evening Post, Oct 6 1951
• "The Magic Afternoon", The Saturday Evening Post, Dec 27 1952
• "A Christmas Tale", The Saturday Evening Post, Dec 19 1953
• "Nor'wester", which was made into the 1959 film John Paul Jones
  John Paul Jones (film)
  John Paul Jones is a 1959 biographical epic film about John Paul Jones. The film was made by Samuel Bronston Productions and released by Warner Bros. It was directed by John Farrow and produced by Samuel Bronston from a screenplay by John Farrow, Ben Hecht, Jesse Lasky Jr. from the story Nor'wester...
  
  starring Robert Stack
  Robert Stack
  Robert Stack was an American actor. In addition to acting in more than 40 films, he was the star of the 1959-1963 ABC television series The Untouchables and later served as the host of Unsolved Mysteries.-Early life:...