Augustus Thomas

Biography

A midwinter baby born in St. Louis on 8 January 1857, Augustus Thomas grew into the kind of storyteller who could turn footlights into wildfire. Between 1913 and 1914 alone he gave the screen three of its earliest sparks—Checkers, The Jungle, and The Nightingale—writing and staging each one with the instinct of a man who heard dialogue in the rhythm of train wheels. Off-set he shared his life with actress Lisle Colby, the only critic whose verdict he courted. Fifty-seven summers after that Missouri cold snap, he drew his last breath in Nyack, New York, on 12 August 1934, leaving the curtains still swaying behind him.