Watkin was an English professor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
A Hollywood film version with Lionel Barrymore and Sir Cedric Hardwicke followed in 1939.
In 1947 Walt Disney hired Watkin to adapt the stories of Herminie Templeton Kavanagh featuring Darby O'Gill.
Three screenplays followed (Beaver Valley, The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, and The Sword and the Rose), which were produced by Disney in Great Britain.
Watkin's effort was also deemed unsuitable; he told friends the biography was "ill-fated" because it was "too truthful".