Educated at Malden High School, Paul graduated and then worked for the government reclamation projects in the US west until 1914. He then worked as a reporter in Massachusetts until 1917, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Following action in major battles, Paul returned home and began to write. He published his first novel, Indelible, in 1922. In 1925, he went to Paris and worked for the Chicago Tribune's International edition. He became friends with James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, and became a great fan of the latter. He moved to the Paris Herald, but later suffered a nervous breakdown which caused him to leave Paris and settle in Ibiza, Spain. Later, he was caught up in the Spanish Civil War, which led him to write Life and Death of a Spanish Town (1937). He returned to Paris and produced undoubtedly his best work, The Last Time I Saw Paris (1942), which was finished after his return to America. He began to write screenplays in 1941 and was responsible for New Orleans, which featured Billy Holiday. He continued writing screenplays until 1953. Paul died at the Veteran's Hospital in Providence. His other works include Impromptu (1923), Imperturbe (1924), The Amazon (1930), Concert Pitch (1938), The Mysterious Mickey Finn (1939), Fracas in the Foothills (1940), A Narrow Street (1942), My Old Kentucky Home (1949), Murder on the Left Bank (1951) and That Crazy American Music (1957). |
