John Guy Gilpatric (January 21, 1896 – July 7, 1950) was an American pilot, flight instructor, journalist, short-story writer and novelist, best known for his Mr. Glencannon stories.
In his autobiographical book Flying Stories, he writes that he was seven years old when he saw photographs of the Wright brothers’ first flights, and decided he wanted to become a pilot.
On November 28 of that same year, at Dominguez Field in what is now Carson, California, he set a new United States altitude record.
[2] In June of the same year, he moved to Toronto to instruct at the Curtiss Flying Boat School and was involved in training Canadian military pilots.
When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Gilpatric enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Service as a first lieutenant.
Gilpatric is best known for his short stories about Scottish ship engineer Colin Glencannon, published in the Saturday Evening Post and bundled in numerous books.
Other works include Action in the North Atlantic, which was made into a movie starring Humphrey Bogart, and which was nominated for an Academy Award for best story in 1943.
His collection of short stories entitled Brownstone Front takes place in New York City during the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th.
[7][8] When his wife, Maude Louise Gilpatric, learned that she had breast cancer in July 1950, they decided to commit suicide together.