Oren Arnold Manuscript and Galleys of "The Golden Chair"

Novelist, journalist, and humorist Oren Arnold was born July 20, 1900, in Minden, Texas. He was a student of Rice University where he was editor of the student newspaper, the "Thresher" and president of the Writers Club. He was also Rice correspondent for the "Houston Chronicle."

After leaving Rice University, Oren Arnold worked briefly in the 1920s as a newspaper reporter and editor in Texas and Arizona, with spare-time free-lance efforts that were instantly successful. For over half a century he has been a full-time free-lance writer, traveling the world, but doing most of his actual writing in his winter home in Phoenix, Arizona, or his beach cottage at Laguna Beach, California. He writes that his motivation for free-lancing is "money! Exactly as Shakespeare was motivated. Plus `the lure of creativity,' the satisfaction from it." Arnold's numerous books include novels, biographies, and nonfiction; his subjects range from family matters and personal guidance to wholesome humor. Arnold believes that "humor is the calisthenics of the mind. A wholesome sense of humor is every bit as important as a sense of morals." Asked if he has been influenced by other writers, Arnold told CA: "Certainly. Every person is, knowingly or not. My most influential `colleagues' have been five nonfiction experts of yesteryear--Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul. Whoever wrote `The Psalms' inspired me also." His opinion of the current literary scene is that "a lot of it stinks; notably the porno magazines and books. Much of it is just shallow. On the other hand, the best writing, ever, has been done in American since 1900, much of it since 1970. Forget the old `classics,' probe the depths of modern thinking and writing, which are still based on those biblical saints."

Arnold died in 1980.

Source: Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2002. Accessed July 27, 2004.