War Years
In World War I, Bellah enlisted in the Canadian Army, and served as a pilot in the 117th Squadron of Great Britain's Royal Flying Corps. These experiences formed the basis of his 1928 novel Gods of Yesterday. In World War II, Bellah started as a lieutenant in the 16th Infantry, was detailed to the General Staff Corps before Pearl Harbor, and was later assigned to Headquarters First Division, later with the 80th Infantry Division. Later he served on the staff of Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten in Southeast Asia. He was attached to General Wingate's Chindits in combat in Burma, and to General Stillwell and to Colonel Cochran's 1st Air Commando Group. He left the service with the rank of Colonel.
In the 1930s he worked as a journalist for the New York Post. He was a member of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of California beginning in 1952.
His short story "Spanish Man's Grave" is considered by some to be one of the finest American Western stories ever written. His last script was A Thunder of Drums. Bellah's depiction of the Apache is protested by some and lauded as realistic by others.
He died of a heart attack in Los Angeles during a visit to his friend James Francis, Cardinal McIntyre, Archbishop of Los Angeles.
Read more about this topic: James Warner Bellah
Famous quotes containing the words war and/or years:
“The same reason that makes us chide and brawl and fall out with any of our neighbours, causeth a war to follow between Princes.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)