Elliot White Springs
The only child of a prominent upstate textile manufacturer, Elliot White Springs was born on July 31, 1896, in Lancaster, South Carolina to Col. Leroy Springs and Grace White Springs. Even at an early age, Springs’ creativity showed in his desire to write novels.
Wishing their son would follow in his father’s military footsteps, however, his parents enrolled Springs in the Culver Military Academy, from which he would graduate in 1913, six years after his mother’s death. Springs then enrolled at Princeton University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts. He put his writing career on further hold during World War I, choosing instead to study military aviation at Oxford University before applying to the British Royal Flying Corp and serving with the distinguished British 85th Squadron. He would later transfer to the United States Army’s 148th Squadron, be promoted to captain and, on the occasion of his fifth confirmed kill, earn the title “ace.” By the end of the war, he had downed eleven enemy aircraft and earned both the United States Distinguished Service Medal as well as the British Distinguished Flying Cross.
After taking leave of the Army, Springs returned to South Carolina to learn the textile trade from his father. He found the business unfulfilling and, as an outlet, finally began to write. At first, he composed short stories about his experiences during the war, which led, in 1926, to his first book, Warbirds: the Diary of an Unknown Aviator. The novel, which combined Elliot’s experiences with those of his friend John McGavock Grider, who perished in the war, was an instant success and is considered to be one of the most significant books written about WWI aviators. Springs would also publish Nocturne Militaire (1927), Above the Bright Blue Sky (1928), Leave Me with a Smile (1928), In the Cool of the Evening (1929), Contact: a Romance of the Air (1930, War Birds and Lady Birds (1934), The Rise and Fall of Carol Banks (1931), and Pent up on a Penthouse (1931), all of which drew inspiration from his experiences as an aviator. Clothes Make the Man (1948) offered a history of Springs Mills and included hate mail Springs received in response to the advertisements he created—some of them deemed “obscene” by consumers who took exception to depictions of women in short dresses and such captions as “We put the ‘Broad’ in Broadcloth.”
Following his father’s death in 1931, Springs assumed control of the family business until, on October 15, 1959, he lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. Buried in Fort Mill, South Carolina, Springs rests next to his only son, Leroy "Sonny" Springs II, who followed in his father’s military footsteps and died in a plane crash at the age of twenty-two.
-- Anna Patton
Wishing their son would follow in his father’s military footsteps, however, his parents enrolled Springs in the Culver Military Academy, from which he would graduate in 1913, six years after his mother’s death. Springs then enrolled at Princeton University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts. He put his writing career on further hold during World War I, choosing instead to study military aviation at Oxford University before applying to the British Royal Flying Corp and serving with the distinguished British 85th Squadron. He would later transfer to the United States Army’s 148th Squadron, be promoted to captain and, on the occasion of his fifth confirmed kill, earn the title “ace.” By the end of the war, he had downed eleven enemy aircraft and earned both the United States Distinguished Service Medal as well as the British Distinguished Flying Cross.
After taking leave of the Army, Springs returned to South Carolina to learn the textile trade from his father. He found the business unfulfilling and, as an outlet, finally began to write. At first, he composed short stories about his experiences during the war, which led, in 1926, to his first book, Warbirds: the Diary of an Unknown Aviator. The novel, which combined Elliot’s experiences with those of his friend John McGavock Grider, who perished in the war, was an instant success and is considered to be one of the most significant books written about WWI aviators. Springs would also publish Nocturne Militaire (1927), Above the Bright Blue Sky (1928), Leave Me with a Smile (1928), In the Cool of the Evening (1929), Contact: a Romance of the Air (1930, War Birds and Lady Birds (1934), The Rise and Fall of Carol Banks (1931), and Pent up on a Penthouse (1931), all of which drew inspiration from his experiences as an aviator. Clothes Make the Man (1948) offered a history of Springs Mills and included hate mail Springs received in response to the advertisements he created—some of them deemed “obscene” by consumers who took exception to depictions of women in short dresses and such captions as “We put the ‘Broad’ in Broadcloth.”
Following his father’s death in 1931, Springs assumed control of the family business until, on October 15, 1959, he lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. Buried in Fort Mill, South Carolina, Springs rests next to his only son, Leroy "Sonny" Springs II, who followed in his father’s military footsteps and died in a plane crash at the age of twenty-two.
-- Anna Patton
