Philip Wylie
Philip Wylie was an influential American writer born on May 12, 1902, in Beverly, Massachusetts. He was the son of a Presbyterian minister and a novelist, experiencing personal loss early in life with his mother's death. Wylie attended Princeton University but did not complete his degree. His career began in journalism and advertising before he transitioned to screenwriting in Hollywood, where he achieved notable success with adaptations such as "Island of Lost Souls" from H.G. Wells's work and later saw his novel "When Worlds Collide" adapted for film.
Throughout his career, Wylie was a prolific author, producing a vast array of short stories, novels, and essays, and gained recognition for his social criticism, particularly in his influential book "Generation of Vipers," where he critiqued societal norms, including his controversial views on motherhood. Despite his successes, including significant financial achievements and various accolades, Wylie faced personal struggles later in life, grappling with debt, depression, and substance abuse before his passing from a heart attack on October 25, 1971. His legacy includes being a notable figure in both science fiction and social commentary, with a lasting impact on American literature.
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Philip Wylie
Author
- Born: May 12, 1902
- Birthplace: Beverly, Massachusetts
- Died: October 25, 1971
Biography
Philip Gordon Wylie was born on May 12, 1902, in Beverly, Massachusetts. He was the son of Presbyterian minister Edmund Melville Wylie and Edna Edwards, a novelist. Philip’s mother died when he was five years old. His father later remarried.
The family moved to Montclair, New Jersey, where Wylie was educated at Montclair High School. From 1920 to 1923, Wylie attended Princeton University but did not complete his degree. He traveled throughout Europe, speaking French, German, and some Russian.
From 1925 to 1927, Wylie was a staff member at The New Yorker and then an advertising manager at the Cosmopolitan Book Corporation from 1927 to 1928. In 1931, he became a screenwriter for Paramount Pictures until 1933; he then worked for MGM from 1936 to 1937. Wylie’s greatest successes as a screenwriter was Island of Lost Souls, his adaptation of H. G. Wells’s The Island of Doctor Moreau. Wylie’s direct input to Hollywood ended in the 1930’s, but many of his books and stories were brought to the screen, notably When Worlds Collide, based on his 1933 novel. By the 1950’s, Wylie had shifted exclusively to writing books, but just before his death in 1971, he was lured back to write one more science-fiction script for the mystery series the Name of the Game—Los Angeles: A.D. 2017, which Wylie also novelized.
Wylie married Sally Ondeck in 1928. They had one daughter but were divorced in 1937. He married Frederica Ballard in 1938. Although his novel Gladiator (1930) was the first work he had accepted for publication, its issue was delayed and his first work to see print was Heavy Laden, published in 1928. By the 1930’s and 1940’s, Wylie was one of the highest- paid writers in the nation.
A writer of fiction and nonfiction, his output included hundreds of short stories, articles, serials, syndicated newspaper columns, novels, and works of social criticism. Wylie enjoyed two simultaneous careers—with a huge following among enthusiasts of science fiction, adventure, and satiric fantasy tales—but he also became known as a leading social critic among the intelligentsia. His most influential book of this period was Generation of Vipers (1942), a collection of essays in which Wylie attacked numerous American sacred cows, most notably the American woman of the era. His essay “Common Women” introduced the phrase “momism” to the language, and proceeded to savage the modern American mother as the “Great Emasculator.”
Wylie was a member of the board of the Office of Facts and Figures in 1942 and was with the Bureau of Personnel, United States Army Air Force, in 1945. He was an editor for Farrar & Rinehart publishers in New York in 1944. He was a member of the Council of the Authors Guild in 1945 and a consultant to the Federal Civil Defense Administration of Dade County, Florida, from 1949 to 1971. He was a director of the Lerner Marine Laboratory and at one time was a special adviser to the chairman of the Joint Committee for Atomic Energy.
Among his awards were the Freedom Foundation Gold Medal (1959) and the Hyman Memorial Trophy (1959). He was also awarded a D.Litt. by the University of Miami University, Tallahasee. Later in life, Wylie, unwilling to make changes in either his work or his lifestyle, found himself in debt after a lifetime of success. He succumbed to depression, alcoholism, and drug addiction. He died of a heart attack on October 25, 1971.