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American silent screen scenario writer Frederic Chapin entered films with the pioneering Vitagraph company in 1915. Although mainly working in the field of action dramas, Chapin co-wrote the then much-discussed Ravished Armenia (aka Auction of Souls [1919]), a fictionalized account of Aurora Mardiganian's struggle to survive the genocide of Armenians under Turkish occupation in the latter part of World War I. A detailed account of the making of this sadly lost film, and of Chapin's contribution, may be found in Anthony Slide's fine Ravished Armenia and the Story of Aurora Mardiganian (1997). A prolific screenwriter through the 1920s, Chapin would never again attempt anything as lofty as the Mardiganian film, but concentrated instead on serials such as Daredevil Jack (1920), starring pugilist Jack Dempsey and Westerns featuring the likes of Buck Jones. Chapin retired in the early '30s.