Education
He studied law at the University of Michigan, and after earning his law degree, became an attorney for the Chinese Six Companies in San Francisco, and later served as an Assistant District Attorney.
He studied law at the University of Michigan, and after earning his law degree, became an attorney for the Chinese Six Companies in San Francisco, and later served as an Assistant District Attorney.
As a youth, Carpenter worked as an apprentice to a printer, and later as a newspaper reporter for the San Francisco Examiner. He became involved in San Francisco"s performing arts circles, writing continued to be an interest, and he served as president of several associations, including the San Francisco Press Club. In 1916, he moved to Manhattan, New York City, to begin a new career as a writer
In the 1920s, he moved to Los Angeles, California and pursued writing for Hollywood.
He was the author two plays, The Dragon"s Claws and The Concubine, several film scenarios, and two novels, Long Sweetening: A Romance of the Red Woods (New York: Robert M McBride & Company, 1921, 306 pp) and The Night Tide, A Story of Old Chinatown (The H K Fly Company, New York, 1920, 319 pp). He served as president of the Screen Writers Guild and vice-president of the Authors League of America, now the Authors Guild.
Carpenter was born on February 21, 1865 in Potter Valley, Mendocino County, California, a son of the noted photographer Aurelius O. Carpenter and Helen (née McCowen) Carpenter. There is a documented friendship between Carpenter and fellow writer Rose Wilder Lane.
The two exchanged letters beginning in the mid-twenties until shortly before Carpenter"s death.
Lane"s letters to Carpenter focused on politics of the time, her personal life, their mutual friends in the arts, farming, reminiscences of their early friendship, and also mentions medical problems Carpenter referred to in his letters to Lane. There are long gaps between the dates of some of the letters, as well as comments on Lane"s part indicating that she has not forgotten about writing to him, indicating that their communication was sporadic.
