Clements Ripley

Early life

Ripley was born on August 26, 1892, in Tacoma, Washington. He was the son of Thomas E. Ripley, and the grandson of American Civil War officer William Y. W. Ripley, who received the Medal of Honor for heroism at the Battle of Malvern Hill. Clements Ripley attended the Taft School and graduated from Yale University in 1916. At Yale, he was an editor of the campus humor magazine The Yale Record with James Ashmore Creelman, writer of King Kong and The Most Dangerous Game.

Military service

Ripley joined the United States Army during World War I. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 14th Field Artillery Regiment. He served until 1920, rising to the rank of captain.

Writing career

While stationed in South Carolina in 1919, Ripley met and married Katherine (Kattie) Ball, the daughter of noted journalist W. W. Ball. They lived in North Carolina and grew peaches until 1927, when they moved to Charleston, South Carolina to become writers. (Katherine Ball later wrote about this experience in 1931's Sand in My Shoes.)

Clements Ripley wrote seven novels, three of which were made into movies, as well as several screenplays. He also wrote numerous short stories and serials, some of which were published in popular magazines, including Cosmopolitan and the Saturday Evening Post.

Death and burial

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

Family

Clements Ripley and Katherine Ball were the parents of William Y. W. Ripley (1921-2013), a notable South Carolina journalist and historian.

Novels

Screenplays

Short stories