Archives West Finding Aid

Robert Cantwell (1908 January 31 – 1978 December 8) was a novelist, biographer, essayist, and editor for several publications including, Time (1935-1936, 1938-1945), Fortune (1937), Newsweek (1949-1954), and Sports Illustrated (1956-1978). Robert Emmett Cantwell was born in Little Falls (now Vader), Washington to Charles James Cantwell and Nina Adelia (Hanson) Cantwell. He married Mary Elizabeth Chambers February 2, 1931 and had three children: Joan McNeice (Mrs. George Stolz, Jr.), Betsy Ann (Mrs. Walter Pusey III), and Mary Elizabeth Emmett (Mrs. Lars-Erik Nelson).

Cantwell attended the University of Washington (1924-1925) and spent four years (1925-1929) working as a veneer clipper man for Harbor Plywood Co. in Hoquiam, Washington. After selling a short story to The American Caravan in 1929, Cantwell moved to New York where he began work on his first novel, Laugh and Lie Down (1931). Upon completion of the novel, Cantwell engaged in freelance writing and published articles for several publications, including The New Republic and The Nation, among others. He published a second proletarian novel, The Land of Plenty, in 1934 and began work, in collaboration with Lincoln Steffens, on a biography of Boston merchant E.A. Filene (which was never completed). Over the next ten years, Cantwell worked on the editorial staffs for Time (1935-1936) and Fortune (1937), ultimately becoming an associate editor for Time, 1938-1945. Throughout the 1930s, Cantwell became acquainted with numerous literary personalities, including John Dos Passos, James, T. Farrell, Ernest Hemingway, Edmund Wilson, Malcolm Crowley, Whittaker Chambers, and Henry Luce.

Over the next three years (1945-1948), Cantwell researched and wrote the biography, Nathaniel Hawthorne: The American Years (1948). From 1949 to 1954, Cantwell worked as the literary editor for Newsweek and then took up freelance writing again until 1956. At this time, Cantwell began an association with Sports Illustrated that lasted the rest of his life. Of the numerous articles composed for Sports Illustrated, three became books: Alexander Wilson: Naturalist and Pioneer (1961), The Real McCoy (1971), and The Hidden Northwest (1972).