Biography
Snell was born in Laddonia, Missouri on November 12, 1878, to James and Sarah Knight-Snell.
Snell wrote several juvenile fiction books. While he mostly concentrated on stories for boys there was at least one series of mysteries for girls. He also wrote under the pen names of David O'Hara, James Craig and Joseph Marino.
Snell and his wife Lucile had three sons, Jud, John, and James. The latter, J. Laurie Snell, became a professor of mathematics at Dartmouth College. Jud and John found careers as a businessman and a United States Navy pilot respectively.
In 1938, Snell appeared on Edgar Guest's radio show "It Can Be Done". In 1941 he wrote a series of war stories for boys at the request of his publisher. He retired from writing soon after the end of the World War II. He spent much of his retirement at a summer cottage on Isle Royale, Michigan. Lucille, a concert pianist who had attended the New England Conservatory of Music, suffered from asthma, so the family vacationed in the north, at Hessel, Michigan, and then at Isle Royale. Here the family acquired a life-lease on a property at Tobin Harbor in Isle Royale National Park. Snell would visit schools in Detroit and Des Moines, lecturing with photographic slides showing life on Isle Royale.
Snell died in 1959 at the age of 80. He is buried in Wheaton Cemetery in Wheaton, Illinois.
