Author Robert Cantwell: Colin Cantwell’s colorful uncle
Colin Cantwell was very accomplished in his life: in addition to being a designer, modelmaker, and artist, he was a photographer, architect, engineer, musician, writer, and more. He wasn’t an outlier in his family tree, however — it was full of smart, talented people who found others like them and created more smart, talented people. One of those people was one of Colin’s uncles, the writer Robert Cantwell, who drew praise from no less than Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, among many other authors.
Robert Cantwell was born on January 31, 1908 in Little Falls, Washington, which changed its name to Vader in 1913. (Is it possible Colin Cantwell once spoke of Vader to George Lucas while working on Star Wars, thus providing inspiration for Darth Vader’s name? We hope to answer that question eventually.) Robert’s great-grandfather was Michael Troutman Simmons, one of the first white men to settle in Puget Sound — he helped found a settlement known as New Market, which later became Tumwater; it’s not quite 50 miles north of Vader and is a little over 60 miles southwest of Seattle.
Mark [‘Hanging by My Thumbs’] well, for my guess is that [Robert Cantwell has] learned a better lesson from Proust than Thornton Wilder did and has a destiny of no mean star.
f. scott fitzgerald
Robert Cantwell’s life
Robert was the second child born to Charles James Cantwell, an engineer, and Nina Adelia Hanson. His older brother was James Leroy, an artist and designer who married fellow artist Fanny Hannula in San Francisco in 1928; their son, Colin Cantwell, was born on April 3, 1932 in that city. Robert’s younger siblings were Frances Dorothy and Charles Harry.
He graduated from the University of Washington in 1925 and spent the next four years working at Harbor Plywood Co. in Hoquiam, Washington before selling his first short story, “Hanging by My Thumbs” and moving to New York City, where he secured a book contract with the publisher Farrar and Rinehart.
That contract led to the publication of the novel Laugh and Lie Down in 1931, followed by The Land of Plenty in 1934. He continued publishing short stories during that time period and became friendly with numerous writers and editors in New York City. He also took on editing work to help support himself and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Chamber, whom he marrid in 1931. They had three daughters, including Mary Elizabeth Emmett, who went on to marry the journalist, political columnist, and author Lars-Erik Nelson. (I interviewed Mary and her daughter as part of my research into a book about Colin’s life.)
Robert later worked for the editorial staffs of Time, Fortune, and Newsweek magazines, a part of his life that was interrupted by a nervous breakdown in 1941. During his time off from work, he researched and wrote the biography Nathaniel Hawthorne: The American Years, which was published in 1948.
From 1956 until his death from a heart attack in 1978, Robert Cantwell worked for Sports Illustrated and turned three of his articles into the books Alexander Wilson: Naturalist and Pioneer (1961), The Real McCoy (1971), and The Hidden Northwest (1972), which was his final book. The Hidden Northwest explored the founding of settlements in Washington state, including the exploits of his great-grandfather, Michael Troutman Simmons.
You can learn more about Robert Cantwell’s life, including his complete bibliography, on Wikipedia.