From Gauss and his Children

Contents 1 Biography 2 Obituary 2.1 Orrick Johns, Author, Kills Self by Poison 2.2 Source 3 References

• Find Orrick Johns in the Chambless Family tree.
• Find Orrick Johns in the Johns Family History Association tree.

Biography

• Olives
• Time of OurLives - The Contents

Obituary

Orrick Johns, Author, Kills Self by Poison

DANBURY, Conn., July 9 (AP)-- State Police Lieut. Harry T. Trucker said that Orrick Johns, 59-year-old author, had taken his life early today in his Starr Plains district home by "drinking a poison concoction he mixed in a glass of beer."

Lieutenant Tucker said the author's body was found by his wife in the living room near a table on which, the policeman added, were "a suicide note" and a summons that Mr. Johns received from Danbury Policeman William Tobin.

The summons, Lieut. Tucker said, charged the writer with drunken driving after he hit a traffic stanchion. The contents of the note were not disclosed.

Author of "Asphalt" and "The Time of Our Lives," Mr. Johns came to this city in 1939 from New York City. --- Mr. Johns formerly was editor of the left-wing publication The New Masses. For several years he directed the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration, resigning the post early in 1937.

Later in the same year "The Time of Our Lives" was published. This was autobiographical and narrated as well the life of his father, George S. Johns, a crusading St. Louis editor.

The younger Johns came to New YYork a few years before the United States entered the first World War. He identified himself with a group of writers and artists who then made Greenwich Village their haunt. He wrote verse as well as newspapeer articles. He was married four times.

Source

New York Times, July 9, 1946, ProQuest Historical Newspapers, The New York Times(1851-2004), p. 20. Transcribed to softcopy by Susan D. Chambless.

References

• Researching the Song: A Lexicon, By Shirlee Emmons, Wilbur Watkin Lewis