‘Art for art’s sake’ has never been part of Robert Coram’s mindset when it comes to professional writing. “Fear of starvation has always been my primary motivation,” he says with a wry smile. “In my opinion, writing involves much more perspiration than inspiration. It’s like working in the coal mines every day; there is nothing romantic about it.”
Robert’s writing career emanated from humble beginnings. Born and raised in Edison, a sleepy little farming town located in the southwestern part of Georgia, his earliest memories involved wanting to get out of his hometown. “I wanted to do something in life that was the antithesis of everything I knew during my upbringing,” he recalls. “No one from Edison had ever been a published writer, so that might have inspired me to try.”
It was also the encouragement of a beloved seventh-grade teacher, Myrlene Tye, that prompted a young Robert to pursue a writing career. “She was the only teacher who ever encouraged me; the rest of them thought I was going to jail,” he laughs. “Plus, I think I was looking for a way out of Edison.”
It didn’t help that Robert’s home life was less than idyllic. “My father was a retired Army sergeant, and to him I was just another recruit. I never had much of a childhood, so anything that would make my old man angry was attractive to me, like The Atlanta Constitution, which he hated.”
Thus, when Robert was a sophomore in Georgia State College, he began a stint as a reporter for The Atlanta Journal. As a general assignment reporter, he wrote about everything from the Civil Rights movement to book reviews. However, when Robert attempted to unionize the paper’s staff, he was fired. “That was very painful because I felt that I had been fired from the best job in the world.”
For the next few years, Robert wrote for McGraw-Hill publications, chronicling the beginnings of the environmental movement as well as the Civil War in Biafra. He then moved to Cumberland Island, an island off the Georgia coast, where he became a ranger for the National Park Service.
During his years living on Cumberland, Robert wrote for Sports Illustrated as well as the Sunday New York Times. Robert ultimately returned to Atlanta in the mid-1970s and began a media column for the Atlanta Gazette.
It was in 1976 when Robert penned a groundbreaking article for Esquire about narcotics trafficking, the first of its kind to be published in a national magazine. To gain insights about the drug business, he traveled extensively throughout Jamaica, Colombia, the Caicos Islands, and the Bahamas. His efforts soon paid off, and he was approached by The Atlanta Constitution to become a staff writer, and received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for his narratives about drug smuggling.
During his second year at the paper, Robert received yet another Pulitzer Prize nomination for his series of articles that featured the National Park Service’s failed efforts to develop Cumberland Island. “I’m proud to say that my piece was a big factor in stopping that development.”
While still at the paper, he became an instructor at Emory University, teaching writing courses to undergraduates. He would remain on Emory’s staff for the next 12 years. “(Teaching) was one of the most gratifying things I ever did. It’s great when you see the students have that ‘light bulb’ moment.”
It was around this time that Robert got the itch to write novels. His first few attempts, however, were not very fruitful. “I wrote five books before I published my first one. I guess it’s proof that God is sometimes merciful toward the reading public.”
The 90s proved to be a prolific decade for Robert, who wrote 10 books in just 10 years, three of which were based on his experiences covering the drug world. These were followed by four crime novels set in Atlanta. However, after a successful run writing fiction, Robert began researching a biography of John Boyd, a project that took almost three years. The result was John Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War, was published in November 2002.
The novel changed the course of Robert’s career, and the book’s success guaranteed him a two-book contract. The publisher stipulated that both books would be military biographies. His first was American Patriot: The Life and Wars of Colonel Bud Day. The second chronicled the life of Lieutenant General Victor “Brute” Krulak, published in late 2010. All in all, he published five biographies chronicling the lives of military giants.
With 16 published books under his belt, including groundbreaking articles on the wars in Central America and Biafra, today Robert is still writing at his new home, Station Exchange Senior Care, located in Richmond Hill. “Robert is such a unique individual with such a diverse and impressive background. It’s special having someone of his stature living here,” explains Nikole Powell, the community’s Executive Director. “He made the decision to come here, which doesn’t happen that often, and I feel that his presence has truly elevated this community.”
After several surgeries, which included a titanium plate being placed in his back, Robert was wary of living alone. “I had built a house in Macintosh County back in 2000, but I suffered a bad fall, which put me in rehab for a while. I made the decision in March to come to Station Exchange. It’s been good so far, but like anything, it takes getting used to. The staff here is very caring, accomplished and motivated.”
When reflecting back on his impressive career, Robert is quite philosophical about it. “I don’t know if I was led or driven to become a writer, but being a professional writer is definitely a perishable skill; you have to hone it constantly. Fortunately, I’ve been able to do that for most of my life and be successful.”
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