Bannister Merwin

Henry Bannister Merwin was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1873 and worked as a poet, magazine editor and novelist before the movies took him over. From 1909 he wrote screen scenarios at a furious clip, some 141 films credited between then and 1921, first at Thomas Edison's studio and then in Britain, where he moved in 1912 to become scenario editor at the London Film Company. He directed twice, and often wrote with his wife, Anne Merwin. He died in London on 22 February 1922, better known by then for silent-film scenarios than for his fiction.