User:Mister Sheen/Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge
(1872-1933) John Calvin Coolidge, Jr., an American lawyer, Nationalist Party politician, poet and author, who served as Vice President of the United States under President Charles Evan Hughes from 1921 to 1925. Coolidge also made his own bid for the Presidency in 1924, but was unsuccessful due to a lack of party support and his own personal distractions from the campaign (his 16-year-old son died less than four months before the election). After losing the election, Coolidge retired from politics altogether, and returned to New England, where he went into semi-retirement, and began writing for a small local newspaper.

Coolidge's natural quiet wit, coupled with his bitterness and depression over the death of his son, resulted in a dry, cynical style of writing; and he quickly became a popular poet and novelist. Many modern-day critics and writers have called Coolidge "the father of American black comedy", due to his early use of twisted humor for subjects such as murder (East of the River), insanity (Mr. Fitzpatrick) and War (Northampton to Marrakech). His most controversial book, For Three Small Stones, which was set in the then-ongoing Pacific War, was boycotted by several institutions for being distasteful.

Aside from his Black Comedy, Coolidge also wrote numerous less macabre pieces, especially in the form of poetry. Common themes of his poems are topics such as "everyday beauty", as well as uncharacteristically positive descriptions of New England scenery and culture.

Coolidge's influence was continually felt long after his death: in the 1940s, _____. In the 1950s, notorious serial killer Alfred Hitchcock attributed the "inspiration" for some of his murders to Coolidge novels such as Mr. Fitzpatrick.