Armitage Trail

Armitage Trail
Born	Maurice Coons July 18, 1902 Madison, Nebraska
Died	October 10, 1930 (aged 28) Los Angeles, California
Occupation	author of Scarface

Armitage Trail (July 18, 1902 – October 10, 1930) was an American crime writer best known for his 1929 novel Scarface, depicting the rise of gangster Al Capone, which was adapted into the 1932 film Scarface directed by Howard Hawks and produced by Howard Hughes. The film was loosely remade as 1983's Scarface.

Biography

Born as Maurice Coons,^[1] he began writing at the age of sixteen, and wrote a number of detective stories for magazines. He was paid $25,000 for the rights for Scarface and helped adapt it for the screen.^[2] He also wrote the 1929 novel on which the 1932 film The Thirteenth Guest was based.

He died suddenly, in 1930, aged 28, from a heart attack, at the Paramount Theatre, Los Angeles, California.

References

1. Profile, amazon.com; accessed September 16, 2015.
2. Server p. 259

Bibliography

• Server, Lee. Encyclopedia of pulp fiction writers. New York, NY (2002)
• Trail, Armitage (1930). Scarface (1ST ed.). D.J. Clode. ASIN B00085TELI.
• Trail, Armitage (1929). The Thirteenth Guest (First ed.). Whitman. ASIN B000KD7C8U.