Charles Divine

Divine was born in Binghamton, New York (January 20, 1889) and graduated from Cornell University in 1911, where he worked for The Cornell Daily Sun and was a member of the Quill and Dagger society. He worked as a reporter for the New York Sun until 1916, when he became a full-time writer. In 1917 he enlisted (having been rejected at first for being underweight) and fought in France in the 27th Division.[1] Following the war he published books of poems and plays up to 1936, when he took up farming.[2] Subsequently, he was a Senior Instructor in English in Triple Cities College, Endicott, until 1948.[3] He adapted two of his short plays for comedy films.[4] His novel Cognac Hill was about love on the Western Front. In addition to his books he published more than 100 short stories.[3] Some of his poems were reprinted in magazines during the Second World War and a line from one of them, At the Lavender Lantern (referring to a café in Greenwich Village), inspired the name of a book Onions in the Stew. He died May 8, 1950, in Bay Pines, Florida.[3]