John Edward Jennings

Jennings was born in Brooklyn, New York, attended the Colorado School of Mines, and studied engineering and literature at Columbia University.[2] He had his first experience of seafaring at age 19 as a hand aboard a tramp steamer in the Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean. As of October 1940, aged 33, he was living in Wayland, Massachusetts, and was self-employed.[3] In World War II, he served as a lieutenant in the US Navy and was head of the Naval Aviation History Unit.[2]

Jennings first wrote short stories and travel narratives. His first novel, Next to Valour, set during the French and Indian War, was published in 1939.[4] It became a best-seller, translated into seven languages. His most popular novel was The Salem Frigate, a romantic adventure set on the US frigate Essex. Other seafaring adventures included The Sea Eagles, about the early days of the US Navy, and Chronicle of the Calypso, Clipper about a clipper race. Banners Against the Wind (1954) was a biographical novel about the pioneering doctor Samuel Gridley Howe.

Jennings died in December 1973 at his home in Miller Place, New York.[2] He was survived by his wife and a son.[2]

• The Encyclopedia of American Literature of the Sea and Great Lakes (2000), Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 213
• Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature (1942), by Stanley Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, H.W. Wilson Company