Unlike many formula writers who throughout their screenwriting employment merely echo their studio's master plan, James Poe was fortunate in being able to make his own voice known. Through his deliberate apprenticeship--first studying screenplays to learn technique, then working on documentaries before attempting screenplays--Poe made himself the screenwriter he wanted to be. He acquired a reputation as one of the most literate screenwriters in Hollywood, and he was frequently called on to adapt literary works for the screen.

Poe was born in Dobbs Ferry, New York. After studying at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, he began his writing career in 1941 as a member of the March of Time, a monthly magazine-format screen series headed by Louis de Rochemont, a pioneer in the field of the semi-documentary. The March of Time, initiated by Time, Inc. and drawing upon its resources, was made up of theatrical shorts, using actors...