Percy Marks

Biography

Percy Marks was born on 9 September, 1891, at Covelo, California, the son of Henry D. and Sarah Marks. His father, a dry goods merchant in Covelo, had emigrated from Poland in 1868. His mother was a native Californian whose parents had emigrated from Poland and Germany. Around the turn of the century Henry Marks moved his family to Ukiah, California, and established a clothing store in a building one of his relatives owned. Later he purchased the Grand Hotel, which was across the street from his store, and renamed it "The Cecille" in honor of his daughter. Percy graduated from the University of California-Berkeley in 1912 and received his master's degree at Harvard University. He went on to be supervisor of education at Tewksbury State Hospital and Infirmary in Massachusetts. Later he would teach English at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, Dartmouth College, the Waterbury branch of the University of Connecticut and conduct writing workshops at the New Haven YMCA College. His teaching career was interrupted during the First World War while he served overseas in the infantry as a 2nd Lieutenant. It was while he was at Brown University that Marks wrote "The Plastic Age", a novel about campus life during the Roaring 20s. The book created a national sensation and aroused the anger of many parents of college students. The controversy led to "The Plastic Age" being banned in Boston but accepted in Hollywood. Later Marks would be so upset by the movie making process that he never again would allow one of his books to be adapted for the cinema. Marks wrote some 20 novels during his life, none of which approached the popularity of "The Plastic Age" (1924). A list of his better known works probably would include: "Martha" (1925), "Lord of Himself" (1927), "A Dead Man Dies (1929), "The Unwilling God" (1929), "A Tree Grown Straight" (1936), "What's a Heaven For" (1938), "No Steeper Wall" (1940), "Between Two Autumns" (1941), "Shade of Sycamore" (1946) and "Blair Marriman" (1949). Percy Marks died on 27 December, 1956, at Grace-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. He was survived by his wife, the former Ellen Gates, and a daughter, Sally Jean Marks.