Rupert Hughes was a distinguished author, playwright and screenwriter - he was also Kimberley Cameron's Great Grandfather. She and her mother decided to re-issue THE RUPERT HUGHES AWARD at the Maui Writer's Conference in 1998, and the tradition continues. Few authors in American literary history have matched his prodigious output.

Hughes directed seven motion pictures he wrote for Goldwyn. Nearly 50 motion pictures are known to have been made from stories or novels by Rupert Hughes, with as many as seven or eight released in a single year. Many were featured prominently in advertising and reviews in The New York Times, such as The Unpardonable Sin. Most of his popular novels were made into films with such stars as Norma Shearer in Excuse Me, and many short stories became the basis of movies, including Tillie and Gus, with W. C. Fields. Stars of other movies based on Hughes plots included Cary Grant and Carole Lombard.

In the film industry's first Academy Awards competition, covering 1927-28, Rupert Hughes was nominated in the writing (original story) category for The Patent Leather Kid, and Barthelmess was nominated for the best actor award for his role in the film.

An indefatigable worker, Rupert Hughes's working habits, acquired early in his career, were well-known to his friends. He got by on very little sleep, and wrote long into the night. Samuel Goldwyn said in 1923 that Hughes "has a capacity for work which I have never seen excelled. Many times I have known him to arrive in the studio early in the morning, direct all day, go home that evening to work on a scenario, and then, after perhaps a dinner or a dance, write several chapters of his new novel."

Hughes and his wife, Patterson (whom he called Pat), lived in a mansion they built on Los Feliz Boulevard in an Arabian Nights style, as had been suggested to Hughes by his friend Douglas Fairbanks. In the author's book-lined study, actually a research library, he used as many as five desks at once -- one as his Washington desk, while others were for current projects. He wrote everything in longhand in a script sometimes difficult to decipher, and then had it typed by his secretary. He usually destroyed the handwritten version, so few original manuscripts survive. A surprising amount of his correspondence with writers, editors, historians, and others -- some handwritten and some typed as he dictated it -- has been preserved, however, in university libraries, historical societies, and other collections throughout the nation, including The University of Iowa.

As a lecturer and after-dinner speaker and toastmaster noted for his wit, he was much in demand. His speeches dealt with many subjects, including foreign affairs, and he became a network radio commentator during the 1940s for NBC. He died in 1956 - the year Kimberley was born. Her mother insists that "he passed her his literary baton." Kimberley is proud to continue his legacy and and give writers the opportunity to be recognized.

[James O. Kemm has recently published Rupert Hughes: A Hollywood Legend)