Marquis James
Marquis James (August 29, 1891 – November 19, 1955) was an American writer and journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize twice for The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston and The Life of Andrew Jackson.
He was born in Springfield, Missouri, the fifth child and only son of Houstin James, a lawyer and Civil War veteran, and Rachel Leo Marquis, a schoolteacher. His father fought in the Civil War and later joined the land runs, moving the family near Enid, Oklahoma, after staking a claim in 1893.
James finished high school in Enid in 1910 and spent a year at Oklahoma Christian University. As a student, he helped start Enid’s Quill, the town’s newspaper, and began journalism early, working as a reporter for Enid Events at age 14. He wrote for local papers and sent Enid stories to larger newspapers like the Wichita Eagle and The Oklahoman.
After school, he worked at several newspapers, including a stint as a rewrite editor for the New York Tribune in 1916. From 1916 to 1918 he published short stories and serials in the Chicago Ledger. He served as an Army captain in World War I, in France from 1917 to 1919.
After the war, James was the National Director of Publicity for the American Legion and worked on the staff of the American Legion Monthly from 1923 to 1932. He also contributed to The New Yorker, sometimes using the pen name Quid.
Marquis James married Bessie Williams Rowland in 1914. They collaborated on children's books based on his Pulitzer-winning biographies and had one daughter, Cynthia. They divorced in 1952 after 38 years of marriage. He married Jacqueline Mary Parsons in 1954.
He died suddenly at age 64 from a cerebral hemorrhage on November 19, 1955, while working on a biography of Booker T. Washington. In Enid, the Public Library of Enid and Garfield County dedicated a Marquis James room in 1964 to honor him, and in 2016 the library was named a National Literary Landmark for his work.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 19:51 (CET).