Few Hollywood screenwriters have enjoyed the professional respect, the salary, and the national recognition given to Dudley Nichols during the 1930s and 1940s. Known as "one of filmdom's most literate personalities," Nichols wrote fourteen scripts for director John Ford; he also wrote for Howard Hawks, Fritz Lang, Jean Renoir, George Cukor, René Clair, Cecil B. De Mille, and Elia Kazan. He adapted for the screen works by Ernest Hemingway, Eugene O'Neill, Liam O'Flaherty, and Graham Greene. His screenplays for The Informer (1935) and Stagecoach (1939) have been termed masterpieces. Hollywood professionals still speak of Nichols with a respect bordering on awe, but his posthumous reputation has suffered from critical reevaluation. Even his best screenplays have been termed heavy-handed, schematic, and simplistic.

Nichols was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, the son of Dr. Grant Byron and Mary (Means) Nichols. In his youth he displayed a quick and agile mind, open to...