Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb was born on June 23, 1876 in Paducah, Kentucky. He was educated in public and private elementary schools an had intentions of getting a law degree when his grandfather died and his father was an alcoholic, so he pursued a writing career instead.
Cobb is the author of more than 60 books and 300 short stories. He started in journalism on the Paducah Daily News at age seventeen, and became the nation's youngest managing news editor at nineteen. He later worked at the Louisville Evening Post for a year and a half. His anecdotal memoir "Exit Laughing," includes a firsthand account of the assassination of Kentucky Governor William Goebel in 1900 and the trials of his killers. Several of Cobb's stories were made into silent films.
When Cobb died in New York City in 1944, his body was sent to Paducah for cremation. His ashes were placed under a dogwood tree. The granite boulder marking his remains is inscribed "Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb 1876-1944 Back Home".
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