Rupert Hughes

Rupert Raleigh Hughes (January 31, 1872 – September 9, 1956) was an American novelist, playwright, film director, screenwriter, military officer, and music composer. Born in Lancaster, Missouri, to Jean Amelia Hughes and Judge Felix Moner Hughes, he was the brother of Howard R. Hughes Sr. and the uncle of billionaire Howard R. Hughes Jr. His family relocated to Keokuk, Iowa, when Hughes was seven years old, after his father established a law practice there. Hughes published his first poem while still a child in Lancaster. He received his early schooling in Keokuk and at a private military academy near St. Charles, Missouri, before attending Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio. He enrolled at Adelbert College in Cleveland, Ohio — now Case Western Reserve University — at age sixteen, earning a BA in 1892 and an MA in 1894. He later attended Yale University, where he earned a second MA in 1899. During his time at Adelbert, Hughes was a founding member of the student newspaper The Adelbert beginning in 1890, contributing poems, satire, comedy, and fiction.

Before completing his Yale degree, Hughes had already abandoned plans for an academic career in English literature in favor of writing. He worked as a reporter for the New York Journal and as an editor for publications including Current Literature, while simultaneously producing short stories, poetry, and plays. His first book, The Lakerim Athletic Club, appeared in 1898, drawn from a serialized magazine story for boys. His first novel not originally serialized, The Whirlwind, was published in 1902 and set in Civil War-era Missouri. Hughes moved to London in 1901 to edit The Historians' History of the World, then returned to New York to assist in editing the Encyclopædia Britannica from 1902 to 1905. His Musical Guide of 1903 became notable for containing a fictitious entry — zzxjoanw — that deceived lexicographers for seventy years.

Music occupied a significant portion of Hughes' early career. He authored American Composers in 1900, Love Affairs of Great Musicians and Songs by Thirty Americans in 1903, and Music Lovers' Cyclopedia in 1914, all of which were well received. His Broadway credits as a composer and book writer include the musical Fad and Folly, All for a Girl, The Bird Cage, Excuse Me, and The Bride, among other productions. In recognition of his contributions to music, he was elected an honorary member of the Alpha chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity at the New England Conservatory in Boston in 1917.

Hughes' theatrical career began inauspiciously in 1895, when a production of his musical comedy The Bathing Girl, staged at the Fifth Avenue Theater in New York with financial backing from his father, lasted only a single performance. He persisted, and between 1902 and 1909 at least six of his plays were staged by touring companies across the United States and in London. His 1908 production All for a Girl featured his second wife, Adelaide Mould Bissell, alongside a young Douglas Fairbanks in his first New York theater role. The 1909 play The Bridge, starring Guy Bates Post, ran for thirty-three performances in New York before touring for three years. His next production, Two Women, starring stage actress Leslie Carter, achieved forty-seven performances in 1910 before also embarking on an extended tour. Excuse Me, a comedy farce set aboard a train, premiered in February 1911 and ranked among that year's biggest New York hits, subsequently touring worldwide — including Australia — and being adapted into films on two separate occasions. A stage adaptation of the novel Tess of the Storm Country followed, and in 1920 Hughes completed his final play, The Cat Bird, starring John Drew, Jr.

Hughes was also a prolific writer of short fiction, with well over one hundred short stories credited to him. His 1917 collection In a Little Town drew on his small-town upbringing with fourteen stories set among fictionalized residents of the Keokuk area. The 1920 Harper collection Mama and Other Unimportant People included the critically praised story The Stick-in-the-Muds and The Father of Waters, which was later selected for The World's 50 Best Short Novels, a ten-volume Funk and Wagnalls compilation published in 1929. His 1912 novel The Old Nest, based on his own family and early life, was adapted into a film in 1921, and its success prompted Hughes to relocate to Hollywood and enter the motion picture industry in 1923. His novel Souls for Sale, published in 1922, offered a sharp examination of Hollywood scandals. He went on to become an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and film director.

Hughes undertook a major scholarly project beginning in October 1926 with the first volume of a projected four-volume biography of George Washington. George Washington: The Human Being and the Hero examined Washington's life through age thirty. The second volume, George Washington: The Rebel and the Patriot, appeared in 1927 and covered the period from 1762 through the early years of the American Revolution. The third, George Washington: Savior of the States, 1777–1781, was published in 1930. Historians recognized the series as groundbreaking for its demythologizing approach to Washington's life and character. A planned fourth volume covering Washington's presidency was never completed. The project had its origins in a January 1926 speech Hughes delivered to the Sons of the American Revolution in Washington, D.C., in which he called for greater accuracy in portrayals of the first president, citing Washington's own diary. Misquotations of the speech spread widely, drawing condemnation from newspaper editors, religious figures, and temperance leaders across the country.

Hughes enlisted in the New York National Guard as a private in 1897, serving in the 69th New York regiment. By 1916, holding the rank of Captain, he and the regiment were deployed to Mexico as part of President Woodrow Wilson's pursuit of Pancho Villa. When the United States entered World War I, a hearing impairment prevented Hughes from serving overseas, and he was assigned to Military Intelligence in Washington, D.C., in early 1918, receiving a promotion to Major. While still a Captain, he designed and patented a spring-loaded trench knife for use by the U.S. Army. In the 1940s, Hughes served as president of the American Writers Association, an organization of anti-Communist writers, reflecting his longstanding opposition to Communism. He died on September 9, 1956.