Joseph Hergesheimer

Birth : 1880-02-15, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Death : 1954-04-25

History

From Wikipedia Joseph Hergesheimer (February 15, 1880 – April 25, 1954) was a prominent American writer of the early 20th century known for his naturalistic novels of decadent life amongst the very wealthy. His short story "Tol'able David" was made into a highly successful and acclaimed 1921 silent film. Other notable film adaptations include Java Head (US, 1923), The Bright Shawl (US, 1923), Wild Oranges (1924), and Cytherea (1924), and Java Head (UK, 1934). Eight films and one television special were adapted from Hergesheimer's work. Hergesheimer died in Sea Isle City, New Jersey. He is buried at Oaklands Cemetery in West Chester, Pennsylvania next to his wife Dorothy (1884-1969).

Movies

Java Head

Novel

The port city of Bristol, England, in the 1800s is home to Java Head, a sailing ship line company. The owner has two sons. One, a handsome seafarer, is in love with a local girl, but cannot marry her due to a long-running feud between their fathers. After a lengthy voyage, he returns with a very exotic, noble Chinese wife, which scandalizes the conservative town. His other son, a "landlubber", seeks to convert to steamships, to the disgust of his father. Even worse, he is secretly dealing in contraband.

The Woman I Stole

Author

A man (Jack Holt) wins his best friend's wife (Fay Wray) and seems to be plotting to ruin the man's oil business.

Tol'able David

Novel

Tol'able David is a 1930 sound film directed by John G. Blystone and produced and released by Columbia Pictures. It is a remake of a famous 1921 silent film Tol'able David starring Richard Barthelmess and Ernest Torrence. Young David Kinemon is a good-natured, easy-going lad in a mountain village. Circumstances force him to take his brother's place as mailman for the community, and this brings him into deadly contact with the vicious Hatburn brothers.

Camille

Spirit of Valentino

A home movie version of the Dumas play. A young woman becomes a courtesan and tragedy befalls her. Appearances are made by many socialites of 1920s Paris and New York.

Flower of Night

Story

Triumph of the daughter of a cheated mine owner over a renegade and her love for the superintendent.

Cytherea

Novel

Lee Randon, weary of business duties and a conventional home life, acquires a long-lost sense of excitement and romance with young flapper Claire Morris. When he meets her married aunt, Savina Grove, she appears to be the woman he imagines whenever he gazes at a doll he has christened Cytherea, goddess of love -----Cytherea features two dream sequences filmed in an early version of the Technicolor color film process.

Wild Oranges

Writer

Millie Stope lives with her grandfather on a remote island. Man-child Nicholas, a fugitive from justice, also lives there and is terrorizing them - and he's interested in Millie. One day widower John Woolfolk, sailing on his yacht, happens upon the island. Soon he and Millie fall in love. Will jealous Nicholas stand for this?

The Bright Shawl

Story

Charles Abbott is implicated in the death of his friend Escobar, brother to the woman he loves.

Java Head

Novel

Gerrit Ammidon, despairing of any chance to marry his love, Nettie Vollar, because of a bitter feud between his father and her grandfather, sails to China to "get away from it all". While in Shanghai he rescues a beautiful young woman being attacked by a gang of street toughs. She turns out to be Taou Yuen, a Manchu princess. Gerrit discovers that, unless she finds a husband, she will be put to death, and he agrees to marry her. They return to Java Head, the Ammidon family home in Salem, Massachusetts, but Gerrit's "homecoming" has some unexpected consequences.

Tol'able David

Short Story

Young David Kinemon is a good-natured, easy-going lad in a mountain village. Circumstances force him to take his brother's place as mail carrier for the community, and this brings him into deadly contact with the vicious Hatburn brothers.