Up for auction "Birds of Prey" John Monk Saunders Signed 3X5 Card Mounted. This item is certified authentic by Todd Mueller Autographs and comes with their Certificate of Authenticity.

ES-7522E

John Monk Saunders (November 22, 1897 – March 11, 1940) was an American novelist, screenwriter, and film director. Born in Hinckley, Minnesota, to Robert C. Saunders and Nannie Monk Saunders, his family (6 children) moved to Seattle, Washington in 1907 where his father served as US Attorney. John attended Broadway High School, where he excelled as both student and athlete. Saunders, a member of Sigma Chi Fraternity, received his education at University of Washington in Seattle where he was president of his freshman class and quarterback on the freshman football team. He served in the Air Service during World War I as a flight instructor in Florida, but was never able to secure a posting to France, a disappointment that frustrated him for the remainder of his life. After the University of Washington, he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, entering in the fall of 1919 where he was the first American to attend Magdalen College. Saunders was a member of their championship swimming team and played on the Rugby squad. He completed his 3-year degree there in just 1¹⁄₂ years. While at Oxford, he formed friendships with John Masefield and Rudyard Kipling. After graduation, he served as attaché at the American Relief Association in Vienna, Austria. After the war he spent time in Paris then returned to Oxford, completing his master's degree in 1923. He worked as a journalist in the US, including stints with the Los Angeles Times and New York Tribune. Saunders began selling short stories to magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Liberty magazines and became editor of American magazine. e first sold the movie rights to one of his stories in 1924, and in 1926, Famous Players-Lasky/Paramount purchased the rights to Saunders's unfinished novel about WWI pilots. Wings garnered $39,000 for the writer - the highest sum paid for film rights at that time - as well as the first Academy Award for Best Picture.