Early life

John Douglass Wallop III was born on March 8, 1920 to John Douglass, Jr., an insurance agent, and Marjorie Wallop (maiden name Ellis).

Wallop graduated from the University of Maryland in 1942, where he served as editor of "The Old Line", a student-run literary and humor magazine.

Writing career

His first novel, 1953's Night Light, the story concerns a father's search into the background of his child's murderer. Anne Brooks of the New York Herald Tribune Book Review said "created characters who are both real and colorful, and he has delved into a maniac's mind with considerable understanding." R.G. Peck wrote an article for the Chicago Sunday Tribune and said it was the "first novel that's well constructed, carefully written, and free of painful mannerisms." Al Hine of the Saturday Review said it's a "novel that is moving and tautly interesting from first page to last. Mr. Wallop writes fluently and without affectation, even when he is exploring the subcellars of bop."

Career

He authored 13 works but is most famous for The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant (1954), which was adapted by Wallop and George Abbott into the Tony Award-winning musical Damn Yankees.

Awards

• 1956 Tony Award Damn Yankees
• Book of the Month Club
• The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant
• The Good Life
• Reader's Digest Condensed Books
• The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant
• So This Is What Happened to Charlie Moe

On January 6, 1949 he married writer and actress Lucille Fletcher and they would remain together until his death. His other interest include chess, sailing, music, and woodworking.

Novels

• Night Light (1953)
• The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant (also published as Damn Yankees) (1954)
• The Sunken Garden (also published as The Dangerous Years) (1956)
• What Has Four Wheels and Flies? A Tale (1959)
• Ocean Front (1963)
• So This Is What Happened to Charles Moe (1965)
• The Mermaid in the Swimming Pool (1968)
• The Good Life (1969)
• Stone (1971)
• Howard's Bag (1973)
• Mixed Singles (1977)
• Regatta (1981)
• The Other Side of the River (1984)

Plays

• Damn Yankees (musical, with George Abbott) (1955)

Nonfiction

• Baseball: An Informal History (1969)