Marquand, John P.

The American author John Phillips Marquand was born in Wilmington, Delaware. His parents were wealthy, but they lost their fortune in the financial panic of 1907 and were forced to move to Panama – Marquand’s father was a canal engineer – and Marquand was left in the care of his eccentric aunts. He then attended Harvard on a grant, which made him a socially inferior student at the prestigious university. After graduating in 1915, he began to work as a newspaper reporter.