Robert Coleman Dowell (May 29, 1925 – August 3, 1985) was an American writer. Biography He was born to Mordon and Beulah Dowell in Adairville, Kentucky on May 29, 1925. Dowell attended several country schools, among them, a one-room school where Latin and Greek were taught. His last two years of high school were at Simpson County High in Franklin, Kentucky, a new county school where he was on the school paper. Dowell served in the U.S. Army, Medical Corps from 1944 to 1945 and as an assistant to the prosecution in war crimes trials in Manila in 1945–46. He was eventually promoted to the rank of sergeant. During this period he also attended the University of the Philippines. Dowell returned home to the U.S. in 1946 and settled in Louisville, Kentucky for a few years where he was a full-time member of the National Guard. Here he wrote the musical play that brought him to New York City. Dowell moved to New York in 1950, initially finding work as a model for automobile and airline ads and as a typist. From 1950 to 1953 Dowell was employed as a songwriter and lyricist for the Dumont television show, Once Upon a Tune, which starred Bea Arthur, Elaine Stritch, Alice Ghostley, and Charlotte Rae. Dowell composed nearly 1,000 works for weekly broadcast. He also worked as David Merrick's protégé and with John La Touche on the abortive Broadway musical version of the 1933 play Ah, Wilderness! by Eugene O'Neill. In January 1957, Dowell met Carl Van Vechten, author of The Tattooed Countess. Dowell wanted permission to attempt to adapt the piece to the musical stage. He played for Van Vechten selections from a score for The Tattooed Countess and won Van Vechten's approval for the rights. Carl Van Vechten was known to his friends as "Carlo." His career included stints as a music critic for The New York Times, as a novelist during the 1920s, and as a photographer for which he never sought nor received payment. He photographed many of the major figures in the arts world. His wife was Fania Marinoff, a retired actress. Van Vechten introduced Dowell into his circle of friends which included many celebrities: Isak Dinesen, Langston Hughes, Leontyne Price, Geoffrey Holder, Gloria Vanderbilt, Sidney Lumet, Eileen Herlie, Kim Hunter, Barbra Streisand, Diahann Carroll, Pearl Bailey, Antony Armstrong-Jones, Tallulah Bankhead, Luise Rainer, Laurence Olivier, Gertrude Stein,