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Vincent Sheean

ヴィンセント・シーン

Vinsonto Shīn

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1899-12-05 （Pana, Illinois, United States）
Died
1975-03-16 （Arolo (Frazione of Leggiuno), Italy） age 75
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Pana, Illinois (birthplace) → Chicago (studied at University of Chicago) → New York (journalistic career) → Leggiuno, Italy (later life)

Career

Occupations
journalist, novelist, translator, script/narration writer
Active Years
1920-1975
Affiliations
New York Herald Tribune (reporter), Doubleday (publisher of Personal History)
Influenced By
Glenway Wescott, Yvor Winters, Elizabeth Madox Roberts, Janet Lewis

Education

University of Chicago
Period: 1910s–1920s（在籍年不明）
Country: United States
Part of a literary circle including Glenway Wescott and others while at the university.

Awards

National Book Award (Most Distinguished Biography)
1935
Work: Personal History
Category: Most Distinguished Biography
Organization: National Book Awards (organizing body at the time)
Result: Winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Personal History

1935 memoir / biography

Sheean's memoir tracing his youth and involvement with political and social events, portraying early 20th-century history and the practice of journalism through personal experience.

journalismpoliticspersonal historyinterwar Europe
Adaptations
  • [Film] Foreign Correspondent / Alfred Hitchcock (1940)

Not Peace but a Sword

1939 reportage / non-fiction

A personal account and analysis of events experienced in Prague, Madrid, London, Paris and Berlin during the critical twelve months from March 1938 to March 1939.

European crisisdiplomacy and signs of waron-the-ground reporting

Bibliography

  • American Among the Riffi (1926)
  • New Persia (1927)
  • Anatomy of Virtue (1927)
  • Gog and Magog
  • The Tide (1933)
  • Personal History: Youth and Revolution (1935)
  • Sanfelice (1936)
  • The Pieces of a Fan (1937)
  • A Day of Battle (1938)
  • Not Peace but a Sword (1939)
  • Between the Thunder and the Sun (1943)
  • Lead, Kindly Light: Gandhi & the Way to Peace (1949)
  • Oscar Hammerstein I: Life and Exploits of an Impresario (1955)
  • Dorothy and Red (1963)

Adaptations

  • Foreign Correspondent (1940, directed by Alfred Hitchcock) — a fictional film based in part on Personal History

Translations by Author

  • Madame Curie (by Ève Curie, translated into English by Vincent Sheean, 1939)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
on-the-ground reportage stylememoiristic narrationblend of non-fiction and literary techniques (literary journalism)
Recurring Motifs
travel and local observationaccounts of politics and warintersection of personal life and history

Legacy

Vincent Sheean was a prominent figure in early 20th-century on-the-ground reporting and literary journalism. He won a National Book Award for his memoir Personal History. His memoirs and reportage, adapted and translated, are regarded as important records of interwar Europe and the lead-up to World War II.

Archives

  • Vincent Sheean papers at Syracuse University
  • Guide to the Vincent Sheean and Ruth Falkenau Correspondence, University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center

In Popular Culture

  • Alfred Hitchcock's film Foreign Correspondent (1940) is known as a fictional film based in part on Personal History.

Trivia

  • Personal History won the National Book Award (Most Distinguished Biography) in 1935.
  • His memoir served in part as source material for Alfred Hitchcock's film Foreign Correspondent (1940).
  • He reported for the New York Herald Tribune during the Spanish Civil War.
  • He translated Ève Curie's Madame Curie into English.
  • He was associated with literary figures such as Edna St. Vincent Millay.