Novelist and playwright, Marjorie Benton Cooke was born on 27 November, 1876, in Richmond, Indiana. She was the daughter of Joseph H. and Jessie Benton Cooke. Her father was a salesman and had once served as treasurer for the city of Richmond. Marjorie attended preparatory schools in Detroit and Chicago before entering the University of Chicago.Not long after her graduation in 1899, she became a successful recitalist of original monologues and sketches. By 1909 she was being called "the cleverest reader of monologues in America". It was also around this time that she began writing one-act plays and poetry. In 1905 she wrote the lyrics to the ditty "Is Yo'? Yo' Is!". Her first book, "The Girl Who Lived in the Woods", was published in 1910 and was followed by "To Mother" (1911), "Dr. David" (1911), "Bambi" (1914), "The Incubus" (1915), "The Duel Alliance" (1915) "Cinderella Jane" (1917) and "The Cricket" (1919). In 1936 her book for young adults, "Bambi" (not the story with Thumper), was serialized on radio starring Helen Hayes. Cooke had also authored a number of popular short stories that appeared in magazines and several plays and screenplays before her career was tragically cut short.Marjorie Benton Cooke died at the age of 43 on April 26 1920, at Manila, after coming down with pneumonia during an around the world cruise with her mother. Her father had passed away four years earlier in New York City.(from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0177468/bio)
