Herbert Clyde Lewis

Herbert Clyde Lewis (15 August 1909 - 17 October 1950) was an American novelist.

Lewis was born in New York City, the son of Hyman and Clara Lewis, Yiddish-speaking Russian immigrants.

He lived in China, working as a reporter on the Shanghai Evening Post in 1930 and on the China Press in 1931 and 1932.

He returned to New York City and married Gita Jacobson in December, 1933. They had two children, Michael and Jane.

He worked as a reporter for the New York Journal, but quit to work as an independent writer. Although he sold several stories to Esquire (magazine), he was forced to declare bankruptcy by the time he sold his first novel, Gentleman Overboard, to the Viking Press in 1937.

He moved to Hollywood and worked as a scenario writer for MGM in 1937. He contributed to the screenplay for the 1939 film, Fisherman's Wharf and wrote the original story for Escape to Paradise. He returned to New York City in 1939 and worked for the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency. He returned to reporting, joining the news staff of the New York Herald Tribune in 1942.

He returned to Hollywood in 1942 after 20th Century Fox bought the film rights to his story, "Two-Faced Qulligan" for $25,000. The story was originally published in [Story (magazine)]. It was filmed in 1945 as Two-Faced Quilligan. His story "D-Day in Las Vegas" was made into the movie Lady Luck (1946), and he contributed to the screenplay for Free for All (1949), which was based on his story, "Patent Applied For."

His most notable accomplishment in Hollywood was his story, "The Fifth Avenue Story," which he sold to the director Frank Capra. Capra in turn sold it to Roy Del Ruth, who filmed it in 1947 as It Happened on Fifth Avenue. Lewis and his co-writer, Frederick Stephani, were nominated for the 1947 Academy Award for Best Story. They lost to Valentine Davies, who won for Miracle on 34th Street.

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