title: Vereen Bell
text: # Vereen Bell
  
  Vereen M. Bell (5 October 1911 – 26 October 1944) was an American novelist and naval officer, who was killed in action during World War II.
  
  ## Early life
  
  Born in Cairo, Georgia to Jennie Vereen and (Judge) Reason Chesnutt Bell, Vereen Bell attended public schools before graduating from Davidson College in North Carolina in 1932.
  
  ## Career
  
  After writing several short stories and editing magazines, Bell wrote the novel Swamp Water, set in the Okefenokee Swamp. It was originally published in 1940 as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post. The novel was successfully adapted as a film (B&W) 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 War II. In May 1944 he was observed pecking at a typewriter in a stateroom on his ship, the USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73). The working title of his last work was The Renegade Queen.
  
  ## Death
  
  In World War II Bell was a lieutenant assigned as an intelligence officer to Composite Squadron VC-10 aboard the USS 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 VC-10 commander, Lt. 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.
  
  ## Legacy
  
  Named for Bell is the "Vereen Bell Highway" in Ware County, Georgia.
  
  Davidson College today awards the Vereen Bell Award for creative writing in his honor.
  
  