Education
Born in Cairo, Georgia, he graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina in 1932.
Born in Cairo, Georgia, he graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina in 1932.
After writing several short stories and editing magazines, Bell wrote the novel Swamp Water, set in the Okefenokee Swamp. lieutenant was originally published in 1940 as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post. The novel was successfully adapted as a film (B&West) of the same title in 1941 and again as a color film, Lure of The Wilderness, in 1952.
Bell continued writing while serving in the Navy in World World War World War II In May 1944 he was observed pecking at a typewriter in a stateroom on his ship, the United States Ship Gambier Bay (CVE-73).
The working title of his last work was The Renegade Queen. In World World War II Bell was a lieutenant assigned as an intelligence officer to Composite Squadron Venture capital-10 aboard the United States Ship Gambier Bay, an escort carrier.
In the Battle off Samar, on 25 October 1944, the Gambier Bay was part of a task force attacked by Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita"s "Center Force". Bell rushed to the ready room to put on his flying gear but was ordered by the Venture capital-10 commander, Lieutenant
Cdr. Edward Huxtable, to remain on board.
Bell survived the sinking of the Gambier Bay that morning but succumbed to exposure and delirium sometime during the evening of the 26th.