Robert Newman
, 1909 - 1988
Robert Newman was an American writer for children and radio scriptwriter, one of the pioneers of early American radio. He was born June 3, 1909, in New York. In 1927–1938 he attended Brown University.
During the World War II, in 1942–1944, Newman was chief of Radio Output Division of the Office of War Information. In 1944 he was put in charge of the radio campaign to re-elect Franklin Roosevelt. He wrote scripts for several radio series. The most famous radio series linked to Newman include Hawks Sky Patrol (1936), Inner Sanctum (1941–1946), News from Home (1942), Murder at Midnight (1946–1947), and Theatre Five (1964–1965). Newman’s scripts were also used during the 1970s revival of dramatic radio (CBS Radio Mystery theater, CBS Radio Adventure theatre).
In 1973 Newman began writing books for children. He wrote detective series and fantasy books. His most popular detective series is the Andrew Tillet, Sara Wiggins & Inspector Wyatt Book Series, whose teenage characters are “Baker Street Irregulars” – street boys who were employed by Holmes as intelligence agents in Sherlock Holmes stories by Conan Doyle. The most famous fantasy books by Newman are Merlin’s Mistake and The Testing of Tertius, with the scenery taking place in medieval England. In his book based on Icelandic saga, Grettir the Strong, as well as in The Twelve Labors of Hercules, Newman, refines and humanizes the image of the ancient hero: his Grettir, far from being as rebellious and ill-tempered as the title character of the Grettir saga, is almost blameless hero cursed with misfortune but determined to make his own destiny.
Bio prepared by Zoia Barzakh, Bar-Ilan University, zoia_barzakh@mail.ru
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