Robert Joyce Tasker (November 13, 1903 – December 7, 1944) was an American criminal, author and Hollywood screenwriter. Mentored by writers such as H. L. Mencken while an inmate at San Quentin Prison, he was described by United Press as "the first author to have a book published while still an inmate of a United States penal Institution."^[1]

See my file Robert Joyce Tasker.rtf

Robert Joyce Tasker (November 13, 1903 – December 7, 1944) was an American criminal who after being sentenced to San Quentin Prison became a published writer. After his release, he became a screenwriter for films produced in Hollywood and Mexico.

Tasker was born in Albee, South Dakota, to Arthur and Ellen (Gold) Tasker. In 1924, after his family was struck with financial misfortune, he began robbing restaurants in the Oakland, California area. Initially called the "Coffee Bandit" as "he always drank coffee and ate pastry in cafes he intended to rob", after his arrest he was dubbed the "Love Bandit" for his claim to have been spurred to crime by infatuation for his childhood sweetheart. He was convicted of robbery and sent to San Quentin Prison.^[2]

While in prison, Tasker began writing, eventually gaining the attention of H. L. Mencken, who ... He eventually became editor of the <San Quentin writing journal (make a link back to here?), which grew in popularity, triggering a spate of inmate prison writing, to the point that authorities

Photo: Oakland Tribune, Volume 106, Number 67, 8 March 1927 (pre-1929, so PD)

Profile of the Day (1939): https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MT19390215.2.32

San Quentin Bulletin: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=NVR19310427.1.4

After his release Tasker went on to (career) (acting), (success), (caveats?) notoriety? re-read crimereads stuff

Tasker died by suicide in 1944 in Mexico City, having moved there for reasons

SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL-NEWS, SANTA CRUZ. CALIFORNIA PAGE FIVE Friday, December 8, 1944 Robert Tasker, Author And Film Writer, Dies Mexico City, Dec. 8 U.R Robert Tasker, author and screen writer, was found dead in his fashionable Chapultepec district horn; yesterday and police invesigation indicated suicide by poison. Friends of Tasker said he threatened to take his life after a quarrel with his wife, the former Gladys Flores, a granddaughter of Costa Rica's ex-president. Two years ago the 43-year-old writer left Hollywood where he collaborated on the scenario of "Big House", a motion picture based on prison life. Tasker wrote from experience, having S3rved a term in ban Quentin.

In prison he edited the penitentiary newspaper and wrote a novel. Grim Haven, which won him his first attention as a writer.

IMDB: He was married to Raquel Echeverría.

His brother Homer G. Tasker was a Hollywood sound engineer.

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/90406142/ -- SQ bulletin (write another article about the bulletin?)

- http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2003-October/034244.html

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/an-obscure-road-to-hollywood/

Robert Tasker (the thinly disguised subject of [John] Bright’s 1961 novel It’s Cleaner On the Inside) and his San Quentin cellmate, Ernest Booth.

[Tasker and Booth], as Garnier points out, arrived in the publishing world wearing the Mencken seal of approval, Tasker with his novel Grimhaven (1928), and Booth with his autobiographical Stealing Through Life (1928).

When Hollywood Was a Writers’ Town: A Conversation with Philippe Garnier:

Then you get to watch Rowland Brown’s Quick Millions and see Tasker, in a bit role, give money to George Raft for a quick getaway and gun him down in the back and get nabbed by the cops who were watching him.

https://crimereads.com/golden-age-hollywood-was-full-of-ex-cons/

http://woodyhaut.blogspot.com/2007/

https://www.burnsiderarebooks.com/pages/books/140944930/robert-joyce-tasker/grimhaven

a popular memoir of life at San Quentin, which the author was able to parlay into a successful screenwriting career. After relocating to Mexico City in 1942 he committed suicide by eating sleeping pills.

• Grimhaven (1928, Alfred A Knopf)

Published in American Mercury:^[3]

• "The First Day" (1927)
• "A Man is Hanged" (1927)

• Hell's Highway (1932)
• Miss Pinkerton ‎(1932)
• The Accusing Finger ‎(1936)
• Girl of the Ozarks ‎(1936)
• John Meade's Woman (1937)
• San Quentin (1937)
• Back Door to Heaven ‎ (1939)
• The Affairs of Jimmy Valentine (1942)
• Secrets of the Underground (1942)
• Dillinger (1945)

Follow pattern of E G Booth article for this, including any articles published in Mercury.

• Tasker, Robert (1928). Grimhaven. Alfred A Knopf. ASIN B0021RIE6C.

Articles: "A Man is Hanged" (American Mercury, https://www.parigibooks.com/pages/books/31188/h-l-mencken-ed/the-american-mercury-june-1927 "The First Day" [American Mercury, https://thegrandarchive.wordpress.com/2023/08/06/editorial-after-five-years/ Volume 10

https://www.burnsiderarebooks.com/pages/books/140944930/robert-joyce-tasker/grimhaven

a popular memoir of life at San Quentin, which the author was able to parlay into a successful screenwriting career. After relocating to Mexico City in 1942 he committed suicide by eating sleeping pills.

Search for stories about Tasker and the SQ bulletin: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=q&hs=1&r=1&results=1&txf=txIN&txq=san+quentin+bulletin+tasker&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1

• American prison literature

• Robert Tasker at IMDb

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MT19281127.2.45&srpos=9&e=---06-06-1929--en--20--1--txt-txIN-robert+tasker------- https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=OT19270308.1.4&srpos=27&e=---06-06-1929--en--20--21--txt-txIN-robert+tasker------- (with picture)

(Note: "US works published more than 95 years ago are PD" -- so as of December 1923, December 1928 is the limit. There's a mugshot of him from 1924 on Ancestry , but was it "published"?)

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=IVP19291210.2.19&srpos=2&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-robert+tasker+first+novel+-------

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SLOTW19240530.2.12&srpos=2&e=---06-06-1929--en--20--1--txt-txIN-robert+tasker------- Gives reasons for becoming Coffee Bandit

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MT19281127.2.45&srpos=9&e=---06-06-1929--en--20--1--txt-txIN-robert+tasker------- Acquires fame while convict "First author" quote: