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Sayre, Joel, 1900-
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Restricted access; Manuscripts and Archives Division; Permit must be requested at the division indicated.
The papers consist of correspondence received from family,friends and colleagues, among them Finis Farr; letters sent to his daughter Nora Sayre, to his wife, Gertrude Lynahan Sayre, to Nunnally Johnson, Jeannette Lowe and others; and letters received by Gertrude Lynahan Sayre from others, including one letter from H.L. Mencken. Also present are typescript and holograph drafts of Sayre's novels, plays and articles; clippings of his published newspaper articles and sports columns; diaries and diary notes; a typescript interview regarding James Thurber; and reminiscences describing his childhood in Columbus, Ohio, his service in the Siberian Expeditionary Force, and his work as a reporter and Hollywood screenwriter. The papers contain many references to writers and motion picture personalities. Also present arememorabilia and photographs of the Sayre family and their friends.
Joel G. Sayre (1900-1979) was a journalist, author, screenwriter, and foreign correspondent. Raised and educated in Ohio, he served in the Canadian Army's Siberian Expeditionary Force during World War I and later studied at Oxford and Heidelberg. Returning to the United States, he covered sports and crime stories for newspapersin several cities, including Boston and New York, and wrote for the New Yorker. He wrote two successful novels and worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter on several films,including Gunga Din, and collaborated with William Faulkner on The Road to Glory. As a correspondent for theNew Yorker during World War II, he covered the Persian Gulf Command, the Teheran Conference and the closing months of the war in Germany. A journalist and screenwriter in the post-war years, he taught at the Annenberg School of Communications from 1960-1971. He married Gertrude Lynahan Sayre, who died in 1960; their daughter, Nora Sayre, was an author and cultural historian. Sayre died on September 9, 1979.
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